Pepper sales brought in RM289.9m ($88.2m) in 2013, up from RM251.3m ($76.4m) the previous year and RM144.81 ($44.1m) in 2009, according to data from the Department of Statistics Malaysia. These levels receded slightly in early 2015 with white pepper dipping to RM36,500 ($11,103) in Kuching as of February while black pepper settled at RM26,000 ($7909).ДЄs a result, the value of pepper exports more than doubled from 2009 to 2013. Looking more closely at the local market, the price of Kuching Grade 1 white pepper rose from RM29,000 ($8822) per tonne at the beginning of the 2014 to RM37,000 ($11,255) per tonne by December, while the price of black pepper increased from RM19,000 ($5780) per tonne to RM27,000 ($8213) per tonne over the course of the year, according to the MPB. STABLE PRICES: Although global production is projected to rebound in 2015 due in part to a stronger harvest in India, prices are set to remain stable. 'Pepper demand is not price elastic, which adds to the mystery of how much prices can actually rise.вЂќ

вЂњInternational demand for pepper has increased an average 4% year-on-year for the past 20 years, whereas production has only risen by 0.6%,' Grunsin Ayom of the Malaysian Pepper Board (MPB) told OBG. This was due largely to a decline in global production in 2014 in which cumulative production dipped from 379,000 tonnes in 2013 to an estimated 336,000 tonnes the following year. Pepper prices recorded their largest ever single-year gain of 27% in 2014, surging from $7633 per tonne in January to an all-time high of $9736 by the end of the year, according to the IPC. Producers have racked up record profits in recent years as global commodity prices have risen alongside demand. This made Malaysia the sixth-largest exporter, behind Vietnam, which shipped out 132,955 tonnes of pepper in 2013, with Indonesia coming in a distant second with 47,908 tonnes and Brazil third with 30,605 tonnes. The country shipped out 12,105 tonnes of the spice in 2013, according to data from the International Pepper Community (IPC), while Malaysia's Department of Statistics put the figure at 13,061 tonnes. First cultivated during the 19th century, Sarawak pepper has become internationally prized for its high quality over the years.Д«ULL RUN: Malaysia consistently ranks in the worldвЂ™s top five exporters. As a result, pepper has become a major cash crop supplementing the timber and palm oil industries.

The state dominates Malaysia's pepper sector, accounting for roughly 95% of the country's output. Riding a wave of robust market prices, Sarawak's pepper industry has continued to post financial gains as global demand for the spice continues to grow.

White sarawak pepper