THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: It turns out that the latest cause for the woes of pepper farmers in Kerala is a ‘spicy’ racket involving Vietnam, Nepal, the bustling Kolkata port and an enterprising Indian black market.
Getting wind of the racket, the state government has now urged the Union Commerce Ministry to urgently stop the rampant smuggling of Vietnamese black pepper into the country via the Kolkata port.
The pepper consignments are ostensibly intended for Nepal, but there is large-scale foul play in the process, Agriculture Minister V S Sunil Kumar said.
“It came to our notice only recently. Our inquiries with exporters and dealers in Kolkata revealed that only the paperwork attached to the consignments goes to Nepal. The low-quality Vietnamese pepper gets absorbed into the Indian market, leaving farmers in Kerala in the lurch,” he told Express on the sidelines of the two-day national workshop on International Agricultural Trade and Free Trade Agreements here.
The minimum import price (MIP) of Rs 500 per kg fixed by the Centre was not applicable to the consignments intended for Nepal, he said.
“We have informed the Union Commerce Minister asking him to urgently look into the matter,” Sunil Kumar said. According to him, what raised the suspicion of the state government and the Agriculture Department was the fact that the MIP was not being adequately reflected in the market. “Our inquiries also revealed that the so-called pepper consignments meant for Nepal in no way tallies with the annual consumption requirements of that small country,” he said. A pepper exporter from the state said the Vietnamese pepper imports supposedly meant for Nepal has shot up significantly.
Spicy racket
The pepper consignments are ostensibly intended for Nepal, which uses the Kolkata port for its maritime requirements, but there is large-scale foul play in the process