The price of garbled pepper zoomed to Rs 22,400 per quintal, a gain of over Rs 700 compared to the last week's closing rate of Rs 21,700. However, following the record price growers brought in fresh stock, leading to a technical correction, IPST sources said. "There was immense selling pressure since Wednesday after the price hit the record high," a dealer said. They expected the price to rule further low during the coming weeks if the arrivals continued to flood the market. "On Friday alone, over 75 tonnes of fresh stock arrived in the market," an IPSTA source said. They also added that the growers jacked up prices during the last couple of weeks by restraining supply. "We expect the price to come a bit more down soon," a dealer said.

Dealers, however, said the demand for the commodity was likely to remain buoyant at least for the next twomonths since India was the only source for black pepper.