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.