India -Rising imports impact black pepper prices

 

Pepper imports in August were unusually high at 3,800 tonnes

Rising imports have kept black pepper prices steady in the domestic market over the past few days, affecting demand.

Against the domestic price of ₹631 per kg for ungarbled. pepper, the consuming markets in North India are reported to have received imported commodities at their doorstep at ₹600-625. This, according to traders, has drastically reduced the demand for domestically produced pepper from Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

Kishore Shamji, president of Indian Pepper and Spices Traders Association (IPSTA), said pepper imports are on the higher side and stood at around 3,800 tonnes in August alone. The farming community alleged that Vietnam pepper is clandestinely entering the domestic market at $3,000-3,500 compared with $8,025 for Indian pepper.

Plea to raise output

According to Shamji, domestic pepper demand is on the rise on account of increased procurement by masala manufacturers ahead of the festival season.

Meanwhile, the Indian Pepper & Spices Traders Growers Planters Consortium – Kerala chapter has submitted a memorandum to a visiting Parliamentary Standing Committee, seeking measures to increase domestic pepper production. Indian pepper production stood at 65,000 tonnes against consumption of 85,000 tonnes, leading to dependence on imports.

The consortium wanted the committee to impress upon the Agriculture Ministry the need to support pepper farming at the grassroots to increase domestic production. Pepper production in 2024 is likely to be around 50,000 tonnes due to shortage of rains and this is expected to spur more imports. Speculative buying in the recent period has pushed pepper prices to newer heights but not brought any cheer to the farming community due to crop shortage.

September 19, 2023 at 01:20 PM.

BY V SAJEEV KUMAR

Brazil Pepper Pricing Overview Week 37

 

Plantation in São Mateus, Espirito Santo

Brazil remains stable and firm; expected to slowly
move at upward trend. Still seeing difficulties in 
securing raw material from farmers especially for 
sundried materials. 

Brazil Pepper Crop Situation
Another El Nino induced drought affecting mostly 
Para region with reports of dying plants and crop 
failures reversing the earlier projected good yield. 
Sundried materials are expected to be more limited 
with prices that could further move at an upward 
trend. 

Brazil Pepper August Export 
Brazil managed to export 5,113 tons of pepper for the 
month of August, generating about 50,408 tons for 
the first eight (8) months of the year. The volume is 
lower by a 2% margin only from last year’s export 
volume for same period. 

For the first eight (8) months of this year, the highest 
importer of Brazil Pepper is still Vietnam, able to 
import 9,437 tons, followed by Senegal with 4,820
tons, UAE at 4,789 tons, Morocco at 4,375 tons, India 
at 3,830 tons and Pakistan at 3,484 tons.

RGT Pepper Market Report – Week 37 /2023 
Royal Golden Trading 2023. All Rights Reserved.

Vietnam Pepper market update 4th Sept 2023 – Week 35.

Over the past week, black pepper prices have slightly increased by about  1,5% from 73,000 - 74,000.

The largest market, China, has resumed purchasing along with demand from Europe/USA for Q4 deliveries.

The average export price of Vietnamese pepper in August increased for the third consecutive month and reached the highest level in the past 10 months reaching U$ 3,748 an increase of 5% compared to the month of July.

According to the latest data from the *General Statistics Office*, Vietnam-s pepper exports in August reached 16,009 tons, an increase of 4,9% compared to July, but a decrease of 13,4% compared to the same period last year.

Export turnover in August reached 60.01 million U$D, a 5.4% increase compared to July, but a 20.2% decrease compared to the same period last year.

In the first 8 month of 2023, Vietnam´s pepper exports reached 183,919 tons.,a 14.5% increase compared to the same period in 2022

Price indication for the week 35

Upturn in Indonesian cloves price reflects global firmness

 

INTERNATIONAL cloves prices have held mostly firm in recent weeks as farmers at origin remain reluctant to lower their pricing ambitions and exporters appear confident of maintaining demand at high levels.

Indonesian cloves prices had moved particularly high, being above $10,000 a tonne cif.

“Our agent in Surabaya says that now that the crop is almost done, stocks are in the hand of farmers and they are not ready to give cloves at low prices especially knowing that kretek manufacturers are on the market looking forward to receiving what they have ordered already,” he said.

Mr Nee added that contrary to buyers’ hopes for lower prices, Indonesian farmers were speculating and pushing traders to pay a higher price on a daily basis. “They all know that the crop is sold to industries already and also that the next crop could be much lower than this one due to very dry weather in Indonesia when cloves (stems) should be starting to come on trees,” he remarked.

Hence, Mr Nee said he was not overly confident of the possibility for a price decrease.

Gregoire Courme, head of the spice trade department at Herbs International Service, commented: “The prices are still high, because the Indonesian market is firmer after the Ramadan. The current prices are between $10,500 to $11,000 a tonne fob.”

Mr Courme added that some local traders had sold short at levels of around $8,500 a tonne to cigarette firms before Ramadan, anticipating a fall during the festival. “Unfortunately the farmers did not deliver the goods and the cigarette manufacturers put the pressure on the sellers to get their contracts. So the local market is high now and the traders are running the market to find cloves. Moreover, the latest figures show that the crop is from 60,000 to 70,000 tonnes and not above 80,000 tonnes as initially predicted,” he said.

Mr Nee explained that in Comoros a lot of buyers had been visiting from Pakistan, the Middle East and China. These individuals would purchase “one or two boxes” of cloves and then leave the country, leaving scope for others to visit and take similar coverage.

Currently there were at least 16 buyers in Mutsamudu compared with only four recently. “Over this, the crop is much shorter than expected, maybe only 2,000 tonnes,” Mr Nee said.

As a result, Comoros cloves prices looked unlikely to decrease and the domestic market was holding firm.

Mr Nee said Comoros was offering at $9,400 a tonne cif Singapore, $9,950 a tonne cif US and €7,750 ($9,748) a tonne cif main European ports.

Mr Courme said that he could not find any sellers of Comoros cloves offering competitive prices.

He added that in Madagascar old crop prices had decreased a little bit since the end of July and were now around $9,700 a tonne c&f Europe.

Mr Nee viewed Madagascar old crop offers as still being “rather high” and he was advising extra care in making sure purchases were of a suitable quality.

The country has been pegged to have a favourable 2012 crop of between 8,000 and 9,000 tonnes. Harvesting was expected to start in mid-October for shipment in November.

Mr Nee said that as yet there was no idea of what the opening prices would be, but based on current offers it was doubtful there would be a large cut in Madagascar cloves prices ahead, he claimed.

Contacts in Brazil had indicated they were expecting new crop prices in the South American country to open around $9 and $10 a kg fob.

https://www.spicefactors.com/upturn-in-indonesian-cloves-price-reflects-global-firmness/