The State Agriculture Department has urged the Centre to enforce minimum import price (MIP) for black pepper and hike the import tariff on nutmeg to mitigate hardships faced by local farmers.

In a June 2 letter to Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, Agriculture Minister V. S. Sunil Kumar said dumping of low quality black pepper from abroad has hit the income of pepper farmers in Kerala, a State which accounts for more than 60% of the area under black pepper cultivation in the country.

Although the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) had introduced an MIP in 2018 prohibiting import of black pepper below ₹500 per kg on cost, insurance and freight (CIF) basis, pepper importers had obtained a stay on it, Mr. Sunil Kumar said.

The domestic price of black pepper had dipped to ₹378.21 per kg in 2018-19 from ₹686.64 per kg in 2014-15. This was largely due to the sharp increase in imports from countries like Sri Lanka and Vietnam.

India's free trade agreements with Sri Lanka and other south Asian and south-east asian nations have led to the dumping of low quality black pepper in the Indian market, he said.

The Agriculture Minister also wanted the Centre to up the import tariff on nutmeg from zero to at 100 per cent.

“Such an action would hugely benefit the nutmeg growers of the country,” he said. Kerala accounts for 96-97% of nutmeg production in India, earning forex to the tune of ₹220 crore. The import of Sri Lankan nutmeg at zero per cent tariff under the free trade agreement with country is adversely affecting Indian farmers, he said.

In a letter to Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, Mr. Sunil Kumar urged the Centre to specify a market support price of ₹42.25 for mature de-husked coconut. He also requested Mr. Tomar to direct NAFED to start copra procurement through the designated agencies.