MUMBAI (Commodity line): India’s pepper prices rose record high for the second day in a row to Rs 41810 per qtl on Tuesday on speculations and reports of production shortfall in India and Vietnam.
In India, Kerala and Karnataka are the largest producers and for 2012, the production is expected to decline 40% and 20% respectively and earlier, country’s production was estimated at 48,000 tons for the year.
Meanwhile, in Vietnam, pepper harvesting has started and yet there were not much arrivals in the market.
The current low level of production and low carry over stocks in the top three producing countries (Vietnam, Brazil and Indonesia) has also caused the prices to move up.
India is the fourth largest producer in the world.
According to analysts, strong domestic and export demand amid fall in output in major growing areas mainly led to an upsurge in pepper futures prices.
In India’s National Commodity and Derivative (NCDEX), the pepper for March delivery traded up 4% to Rs 41810 per qtl on 6th March at 15:35 IST.
