Contrary to market pundits, it was not the Vietnam pepper, but its Brazilian counterpart that proved to be the active contenders to pepper varieties from India in the last fortnight. Fresh quotes have been made only by India and Brazil in the international market, but the equation between the two has been going on in a a blow-for-blow motion for a while.

The quality of Indian pepper has finally asserted itself, according to trading sources, with the Brazil quotes tapering to silence. The prices have more or less stabilised at Rs 15,000 per quintal for garbled pepper and Rs 14,200 for the ungarbled. The quotes for futures are also steadying.

According to sources in Spices Board, Brazilian variety is in no way comparable to the superior quality Kerala varieties. While Brazil sells at $2,700 per tonne, India sells at $3,300 per tonne. However, frenzied zig-zagging of Brazilian traders into the Indian market has shoved down the Indian pepper prices a good deal. In early October, when Brazil offered pepper at $3400 per tonne, the Indian price had been $4300 per tonne. The gravity of the triumph may go unsung, said a pepper trader, because the market was also contending with a section of the traders making covert private offers to international buyers to sell far below the Indian prices.

Although the recent harvest from the Southern districts of Kerala was not quite the export quality, their inopportune entry into the market helped little to hold up the prices. When the prices of ungarbled pepper had fallen below Rs 17,000 per quintal mark in September, the planters in Idukky, Munnar high ranges had refused to allow farm-market movements, thus salvaging the prices for a while. For 2000, Vietnam's output is 34,000 tonnes and exports are 32,000 tonnes. The country has already seized 15 percent of the international market share in pepper trade, while India produces only 65,000 tonnes. According to a recent report of International Pepper Community ( IPC), Vietnam has projected a ten year production target of one lakh tonnes.

Indian market is more and more sensitive to the challenges posed by pepper-growing countries like Vietnam, Brazil and Indonesia. Said a trader, "Even though the India is expected to improve its pepper output by about 20 percent by this fiscal, about 50 percent of the Indian produce caters to the domestic market.

More than the international market of Indian pepper, it is its domestic market that is likely to be affected by the worldwide growth in pepper output, he said.