Pepper up on low production

The domestic prices of black pepper have climbed up by Rs 7,050 a quintal for ungarbled and Rs 7,450 for garbled.

The year 2005 ended on an optimistic note for the global black pepper market. This year, too, prices of the commodity have been on an upswing as total world production is likely to drop marginally on account of lower production in India and Vietnam.

According to International Pepper Community (IPC) estimates, world production will be down 10 per cent and carryover stock would also be down substantially from the last year levels.

These two factors may cause a northward movement of the price line in the current year, and there were already some signals of an improvement in the prices in the recent weeks.

As per IPC estimates, world production of pepper in 2005, too, had dropped 8 per cent at 2,94,770 tonne from 3,23,480 tonne in the preceding year. However, to farmers' dismay, prices around the world had fallen considerably in 2005 owing to a large stock carryover from 2004.