Essay Example on Growth and Instability analysis of Black Pepper trade in Kerala

Growth and Instability analysis of Black Pepper trade in Kerala Introduction Black pepper Piper nigrum L the king of spices is one of the important spice commodities of commerce and trade in India Its trade is a legacy from ancient times It originated in the tropical evergreen forests of the Western Ghats of India The pepper trade to western world begins from the arrival of Vasco Da Gama a Portuguese explorer in 1498 in Kozhikode During 1960s with 25 per cent share in world production and 20 per cent share in world export India was the major producer and exporter of pepper in the world Nagoor 2010 More than 95 per cent of the global output of black pepper is confined to six nations viz India Indonesia Brazil Malaysia Sri Lanka and Vietnam India though had dominant position in the pepper production its position in recent years declined and at present Vietnam tops in production The International Pepper Community IPC countries now corner 80 percent of the global trade in black pepper Since the early 2000s Vietnam has emerged as the leading producer and exporter of pepper in the world market The average annual production of Vietnam was approximately three times higher than that of India India ranks behind Vietnam and Indonesia in total pepper production with 55000 tonnes in 2016 whereas it was 216432 tonnes and 82167 tonnes respectively for Vietnam and Indonesia However with the emergence of competition from other pepper producing countries such as Vietnam Brazil 

As we can seen from Government report on black pepper says that black pepper is one of the important crops which provides major source of income and employment for rural households in Kerala where more than 2 5 lakh farm families are involved in pepper cultivation Government of India 2009 So the declined performance recorded in recent years after 2000 by this spice crop in the state added up the relevance of this particular study In order to bring back the period of glory of pepper trade immediate attention should be given to the production and export aspects of pepper In this context it is important to study the growth and instability in pepper production and trade The present study was carried out with the specific objectives of analyzing the growth and instability in production and export of pepper from Kerala The earlier studies revealed that Production of pepper depends very much on agro climatic factors Pests diseases etc High price coupled with good cultivation practices favourable weather situation and fewer incidences of pests and diseases often lead to higher production level Reversing the situation of the above factors would normally lead to lower production Many importing countries have reported that Indian pepper is sometimes contaminated with foreign matters like rodents and bird excreta hairs of animals cow dung bamboo splits etc and this has created a lot of problems for the Indian pepper trade Mary 1996 India's competitive position in the world market for pepper remained weak owing to its higher prices Cherian 1991 It is possible for India to regain its part glory in black pepper if all the concerned agencies put in a strong front with combined efforts and practical strategies to revive black pepper For this farmers will need guidance from organization like Spices Board Agricultural Universities and even NGO s Sharma 2006 The recent problems affecting the spices industry such as those arising out of the surging import of leading spices to India due to India's FTA s the challenges and opportunities created by the WTO agreements scarcity of agricultural labourers in the spices producing areas etc have not been enquired into by any of the studies Thomas T P WTO has an unfavourable effect on Indian pepper export but the introduction of WTO compatible Export Subsidy Schemes for pepper had a favourable impact on the pepper export in recent years The poor performance of pepper export was mainly due to the high domestic demand Ibrahim Y C New entrants do not have much domestic market which compels them to sell their products at cost price or even below it in foreign market Sujatha et al 2007