Commodity Online
KOCHI: Vietnam is giving tough competition to Indian black pepper with the Vietnam variety showing some $200 difference per tonne.

Following this $200 per tonne price differential, queries for Indian pepper came down to a trickle in recent times.

Vietnam being the largest producer of black pepper in the world has always been a volume player in the global market.

In case of India, the competition between the two has been at the low-end of the spice market.

However, this time, the competition has hotted up at the top-end of the market too, where India outclasses Vietnam in quality and value-added products.

Naturally, the heat is being felt in exporting the country’s finest quality pepper, Malabar grade (MG)-1.

In Vietnam, pepper from the current crop of one lakh tonne continues to arrive in the domestic market.

As a result, its two main medium varieties of pepper, having density of 500 gm/litre and 550 gm/litre, shed $50 each to come down to $2,800 per tonne and $2,950 per tonne, respectively.

However, what worries India most is the decline in the prices of Vietnam’s best quality pepper, the ASTA grade pepper with a density of 570 gm/litre, which is a close competitor to India’s MG-1 grade.

Indian exporters see no chance of narrowing down this $200 per tonne price differential in the near future due to supply constraints.