Global pepper production has not been keeping pace with growth in consumption of the commodity offering scope for increasing production, VJ Kurian, chairman of Jakarta-based International Pepper Community (IPC) and Indian Spices Board said.
Speaking at the inaugural function of the 38th annual session of the IPC, which began here on Monday, Kurian said exportable surplus of producing countries is not adequate and global pepper trade is just a quarter of the total global trade in spices.
India is a major consumer of the spice and consumes 60% of its annual production, he said. IPC is an intergovernmental organization of pepper producing countries like Brazil, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Vietnam as full members and Hainan Province (People’s Republic of China) and Papua New Guinea as associate members.
The annual meeting of the IPC collates figures provided by member nations to arrive at production, consumption, and export figures for 2011. More than 150 international delegates, including a 30-member team from China are attending the 5-day meet.
The meeting will deliberate on issues relating to quality improvement and production of pepper in the member countries and consumption pattern in pepper importing countries. Papers will be presented by representatives from the US Food and Drug Administration, European Spice Trade Association and American Spice Trade Association .
The last IPC meet held in Brazil had reported that production would increase by 3 % in 2010 to 290,742 tonne from 281,974 tonne in the previous year. The global trade in pepper in 2010 is estimated at 218,074 tonne from 243,800 tonne in 2009.