KUCHING: The Malaysian Pepper Board (MPB) today announced its decision to stop purchasing pepper from local farmers for two weeks, effective tomorrow.
This, said the board, was due to warehouse and storage constraints and urged farmers to stay calm in the interim.
The board said the country’s pepper farms were at the height of the harvesting season, which was a good sign for the national pepper industry.
“However, all our warehouses nationwide are full of pepper stock and we do not have enough storage space to store any new purchases.
“MPB staff are also currently running the processing facilities to the maximum output with extra shifts to digest and regulate the massive stocks that we receive,” it said in a statement.
MPB said, in view of the situation, it had no choice but to temporarily stop all pepper purchases for one to two weeks.
The board urged pepper farmers to stay calm as it was doing its best to process all the received stock before they could be released and circulated in the market for sale.
“We will resume buying on August 8 and assure that they are bought at the same prices as before.”
The prices are RM8.9 per kg for black grade 1, RM15.60 per kg for white grade 1, RM9.80 per kg for LBE black special, RM16.20 per kg for LBE white FAQ and RM19.90 per kg for LBE creamy white pepper.