Pepper News

The IPC had the 22nd Meeting of IPC Committee on Quality during 25th - 26th April 2016 at Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia. The meeting was organized jointly by the Malaysian Pepper Board and the International Pepper Community and attended by members of IPC Committee on Quality from member countries namely India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Sri Lanka.

Dato Grunsin Ayom, the Director General of Malaysian Pepper Board in his opening speech highlighting the importance of quality issues in the pepper trade and industry. He further said that the Government of Malaysia is promoting the quality improvement programme for the pepper sector to protect the interest of thousands of pepper farmers in Malaysia and he appreciated the good works undertaken by the Committee in addressing the quality related issues such as revising the IPC quality standards, producing GMP document as part of the quality improvement programme among the IPC member countries.

Dato Grunsin Ayom, Director General of Malaysian Pepper Board delivered his speech at the Opening of the 22nd Meeting of IPC Committee on Quality held in Kuching, Malaysia

Meanwhile Mr. WDL Gunaratne, the Executive Director of IPC welcome Dato Grunsin Ayom, Director General of Malaysian Pepper Board, Chairperson of the electronic-Working Group, Mrs. Chandrini M Dewi of Indonesia and other members of the IPC Committee for Quality, from India, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Sri Lanka to the Meeting. He informed that member of Vietnam and Brazil due to some unforeseen problem could not attend the Meeting. The ED also briefed the outcome of the 21st meeting and informed that the book on IPC Quality Standards for pepper and pepper products is now available in printed form. ED thanks the Chairman of the Quality Committee Mr. KRK Menon, of the Spices Board India and the members for their dedication to make that event a success.

Executive Director and Members of the IPC Committee on Quality participated at the 22nd Meeting of IPC Committee on Quality held in Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia, 25-26 April2016

The 22nd Meeting reviewed and discussed a number of issues related to quality improvement programme including the recently adopted IPC Standard Specifications for Pepper and Pepper products, Methods of Analysis, Pesticides Residues Hazards / permitted pesticides for Pepper, Intrinsic chemical and physical qualities of pepper varieties / cultivars and uses of pepper processing equipment at farm level / Mechanization of pepper processing in the respective member countries; application of GMP in pepper processing.

The meeting has finally agreed to come up with the draft of the IPC Good Manufacturing Practices for Pepper, providing more detailed guide for use by pepper farmers and those who are involved in the processing of pepper. The IPC-GMP is expected to be finalized and published by IPC during second semester of 2016.

In addition to the above the Meeting also agreed to adopt the proposed methods (method 13.00-21.00) to the IPC Methods of Analysis and to compile the list of permitted pesticides for pepper, including the MRLs of each pesticide in the IPC member countries for further follow up action. Another important decision of the meeting is to request IPC Secretariat to put up a proposal for the 44th Session to have the training on Methods of Analysis and undertake the Inter-Laboratory Proficiency Testing Programme for 2017.

The next 23rd Meeting of IPC Committee on Quality is scheduled to be held in Sri Lanka next year.