Farmers have started harvesting green pepper in the southern districts of Kerala as it is fetching good prices for them. Trade sources told Business Line that manufacturers of pepper in brine, dehydrated and green pepper pickle were buying this material at ₹110 a kg. It is beneficial to the growers as at this rate given the 5:1 ratio for producing dried black pepper, they are getting ₹550 now as against the current ₹400 a kg, they said. Spot market was sluggish on Tuesday and, as a result, the prices slid by ₹100 a quintal to ₹42,000 (ungarbled) and ₹44,000 (garbled). On the terminal market, 11 tonnes of dried pepper from the high ranges were traded at ₹430 a kg, they said. Export prices were at $6,925 a tonne c&f for Europe and $7,175 a tonne c&f for the US.