"Production will decline because of a weather factor and therefore exports are predicted to also decrease," the director general of international trade cooperation of the ministry of trade, Gusmardi Bustami, said at the secretariat of the International Pepper Community (IPC) which he now leads here on Friday.
According to IPC predictions, the country`s pepper production would drop to around 37,000 tons in 2011 from 56,000 tons in 2010, due to weather conditions which are not supportive for pepper farming.
The executive director of the IPC secretariat, S Kannan, said heavy rains that happened at the end of 2010 and early in 2011 were believed to have helped reduce production in pepper producing countries such as Indonesia, Brazil, Vietnam, India and Sri Lanka.
"Malaysia`s pepper production will be more or less the same as last year`s. China`s production is predicted to be better," he said.
The IPC estimates the world`s pepper production in 2011 will be around 309,952 metric tons or lower than that of the 2010 which reached 330,380 metric tons.
Kannan said the think stock from last year`s production would limit supply to the market and push for a price rise.
The IPC records the composite price of pepper in 2010 showed a rising tendency due to declining supply with the sharpest rise in the second half of last year.
In December 2010, the composite price of black pepper was recorded at US$4,572 per metric ton and white pepper US$7,025 per metric tons which are higher than the composite price of 2009 respectively at US$3,031 and US$4,404 per metric ton.
Indonesia is the world`s second biggest producer of pepper after Vietnam contributing 17 percent of the world`s production in 2010.(*)
Editor: Ruslan Burhani
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
