Pepper exports from other nations affecting India's shipments

Exports from pepper-producing countries like Vietnam are affecting India's spice shipments abroad, that fell to 19,750 tonnes in 2009-10 from 25,250 tonnes in the previous fiscal, Lok Sabha was informed today.

"The low cost economies such as Vietnam which produce over 1,00,000 tonnes of pepper annually having negligible domestic consumption are affecting our (India's) exports," Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Jyotiraditya Scindia said in a written reply.

India's export of pepper was 35,000 tonnes in 2007-08. The annual production of pepper in the country is estimated at 50,000 tonnes.

The predominance of senile and uneconomic plantations, low yielding pepper vines, climatic change, incidence of quick wilt, attack of mealy bugs and virus, are amongh the major reasons for low production of pepper in India, Scindia said.

Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka are the major pepper producing states in the country.