World pepper trade to drop

World pepper trade to drop

HANOI (Reuters): World black pepper exports from the 1999/2000
crop are likely to fall 12 percent to 118,800 tons because of
indications India's harvest will be well down, an industry report
said.

In its annual pepper report, Man-Producten Rotterdam BV said
lower exports from India could leave the high-end pepper market
vulnerable until the second half of 2000 when Brazil and
Indonesia started harvesting.

The report added that the impact could be lessened as
consuming nations had been building up stocks since the second
quarter of 1999.

The report, obtained by Reuters on Friday, said record world
prices had left 1999 consumption below levels recorded in the
early 1990s. It gave no forecasts for prices this year, or what
impact lower exports might have.

Total world imports last year of black pepper were around
134,000 tons, with estimated consumption of 115,000 tons.