About India as a Black Pepper Net Importer and the Spice’s Rising Cost

A few years back, India went from being a net Pepper exporter to a net Pepper importer.

This is staggering fact. It’s the first time in world history that India — the place where the famous Tellicherry Garbled Extra Bold (TGEB) Peppercorns got their start — has imported more Black Pepper than the country can grow and export.

Consumption is up because India’s new middle class, some 300 million strong, wants to eat the cuisine of the culture, which, as you know, is a heavily spiced cuisine.

With that, a rising cost in Black Pepper.

When I first got into the spice business 26 years ago, I could buy Whole Black Pepper for 68 cents a pound. Now, it’s usually somewhere near $6 a pound.

Cost by container? You know, one of those 40,000 lb cargo containers you see on ships? That will run you a quarter of a million dollars. It’d be a pretty good investment if you’ve got the capital.

The rise in cost is simple. There’s a large demand. Yes, in India, but also in the United States. Here we buy nearly 20% of the world’s Pepper.

Are you really eating the good stuff?

Black Peppercorns are white in the interior; this is where you get the hot, intense Pepper flavor. Some spice companies will extract the oleoresin (which is where the volatile oil pepperine is stored) from the interior and sell the oleoresin separately, because that’s where the really big money is.

So, while a good Ground Black Pepper for the table would ideally be 50% outer shell Black Pepper and 50% of the interior of the Black Peppercorn (which is white), by adding the reduced flavor black shell back in the mix you get a 60/40 exterior/interior mix or maybe even 70/30 exterior/interior mix. (i.e. 60/40 black to white ratio or 70/30 black to white ratio.) That is not the same as fresh, pure, ground WHOLE Black Pepper.

If you’re finicky about your Pepper, then I recommend going to a reputable retailer who specializes in spice. Because in this instance, things cost what they cost for a reason.

I talk a little bit about TGEB in my talk on spices. Here’s a snippet for you now.