Every year, Sampan Somanna used to harvest about 25 bags of 50 kg each from every acre of his plantation in Balale in Kodagu district’s Virajpet taluk. This year, the yield has dipped to five to six bags from every acre.
When coffee yield or prices decrease, pepper – an inter-crop by coffee planters – would come to the rescue. But, this year’s steep decline in yield of coffee, attributed to erratic weather conditions, has come at a time when prices of pepper too have crashed, thanks to the availability of Vietnamese pepper, which is making its way into the country through Sri Lanka by taking advantage of the duty concessions under the South Asia Free Trade Area (SAFTA) agreement.
“Coffee planters are in a crisis now. Not only has coffee yield declined, even the prices have come down. And pepper is also not compensating the losses suffered on account of dip in yield and price of coffee,” Mr. Somanna regretted. Against 2,21,745 tonnes of coffee harvested from Kodagu, Chikkamagaluru and Hassan last year, the Coffee Board of India had post-blossom estimated an output of 251,760 tonnes this year (2017-18). An official from the Board in Madikeri conceded that the yield will measure up to the earlier estimates. “We are still working out the figures,” he said, laying the blame on delayed monsoon and high temperatures. But, Bose Mandanna, former Vice-Chairman of Coffee Board of India, said the output of coffee this year could be around 1.75 lakh tonnes. Also, the price of Arabica Parchment, which fetched the growers around ₹8,000 to ₹9,000 for every bag of 50 kgs last year, is now sold at barely ₹7,000. Similarly, Robusta Cherry, which got the planters ₹4,000 to ₹4,500 for every bag of 50 kgs, is now sold for only ₹3,000.
“The crash in prices of coffee is on account of the New York and London Stock Exchanges faring badly,” Mr. Mandanna added.
These are the best
Pepper grown in Hassan and Chikkamagaluru, considered to be among the best qualities, used to command a price of around ₹580 per kg last year. Now, it is sold at as low as ₹350 per kg.
U.M. Thirthamallesh, General Secretary, Karnataka Growers’ Federation, an organisation of planters in three districts – Hassan, Chikkamagaluru and Kodagu – said, “The cost of production of a kg of pepper is estimated at ₹452, as per the studies of the Agriculture Price Commission. But we are selling our product at ₹100 less per kg.”
The growers attribute the dip in pepper prices to the arrival of low-quality pepper from Vietnam through Sri Lanka. The organisations representing the growers had appealed to the Centre to check the import of Vietnam pepper and Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had also written to the Centre in this regard. he Centre fixed a Minimum Import Price (MIP) for pepper at ₹500 per kg. “The announcement of the MIP had a positive impact only for a week when the prices suddenly went above ₹500 per kg. However, they returned to the old price a week later. This is because of illegal import,” said B.A. Jagannath, a pepper grower at Ballupete, in Sakleshpur taluk, Hassan.
As the price of coffee has been low in the international market for the past three years, the growers were expecting good returns in the sale of pepper.
With a dip in the prices of both coffee and pepper, the growers’ community is highly disappointed. They are demanding pro-active measures by the Ministry of Commerce to stop illegal import. The Karnataka Growers’ Federation has submitted a memorandum to all Lok Sabha members of the Karnataka to raise the issue in parliament.
