Monthly Publication

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During September 2015, the Pepper Price Index increased by 2.48 points for black Pepper and 5.01 points for white Pepper (Table 1) .The composite price of black Pepper increased by 0.77% from US $9377 in August 2015 to US $9449 in September 2015, while that of white Pepper decreased by around 1.57% from US $13,759 in August 2015 to US $13,546 in the month of September 2015 (Table 2).

Pepper market still holds strong price movements for the month of September 2015. The average price for the month of September 2015 showed a constant stable price movements compared to previous month. There was no significant selling pressure in the market. The supply of Pepper from the producing countries showed a greater stability and prices at sources remained stable throughout the month. This is the peak harvesting season in Brazil and expected output of Pepper from Brazil is of around 30,000-35,000Mt. This quantity is relatively small to make any significant impact compared to quantity of pepper produced by Vietnam, and do not make any significant impact in the global market. Prices are estimated to remain high until the next crop from India and Vietnam arrives in early 2016.

The local price of Malabar black Pepper has shown declining trend and decreased by 1.36% and FOB price as well decreased by around 1.38% compared to the month of August 2015. Not much of a volatility noticed over the month of September 2015, showing stable market.

Pepper harvesting in Indonesia also still progressing and expect a higher crop than predicted. Market is stable and black Pepper price in domestic markets increased by around 1.64% and FOB price increased by 2.28% further over the month of September 2015. Despite of that, local price of white Pepper decreased by 3.83% and FOB price decreased by 3% over the month of September 2015 . Although Pepper harvest in Indonesia is almost getting completed and huge quantity has arrived in the market. As reported earlier, good weather conditions during flowering and fruiting season has blessed the production of Pepper in Indonesia. However, extreme hot and dry weather hit in Pepper producing areas in the last few months, many immature Pepper spikes have fallen down, particularly in Bangka and Kalimantan and this has resulted in more of black Pepper produced in these areas.

In Vietnam, the prices were also relatively stable. Local price of black Pepper has increased by around 0.735%, whereas 1.69% increases in FOB price were seen over the month of September. The local price of white Pepper was stable whereas FOB price of white Pepper increased by around 1.67 % during the month. Availability of pepper is getting scarce, even in Vietnam, as the largest pepper producer indicating non availability of stocks.

In Sarawak, local prices of black Pepper increased by around 2.76% with no significant change in FOB price, whereas Sarawak local white Pepper was stable but seen an increase of 1.72% in FOB price movement. In dollar terms however, the price stabilized due to weakening of Malaysian Ringgit against US dollar. It was reported that production and export of pepper from Malaysia is estimated to increase slightly during this year. However, up to June (January- June 2015) total export of pepper from Malaysia was only 4,775Mt or decreased by 22% when compared to export of 6,148Mt exported in the same period last year. It is interesting to note that exports in the first four months of this year were relatively less. This is due to limited carry-over stocks from last year harvest. In May and June, the export has shown an increase, sourced from this year harvest. It is expected that export of Pepper to remain good in the remaining months of this year to achieve its target of higher export.

In Sri-Lanka local price of Pepper indicated a slight decline of around 0.60%, despite the harvesting has completed a month ago, in the local market to the month of September 2015. Expected output seems to be higher than the predicted figure.

On the basis of the above price movements, it is seen that Pepper price is consolidating and not much volatility in the market are visible. Black Pepper and white Pepper prices prevailed in local markets are shown in table 3 and 5 respectively, whereas FOB price of black and white Pepper are shown in table 4 and 6 respectively.

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