Black Pepper

Piper Nigrum

Organic & Conventional

Black pepper is handpicked and open sun dried by farmers to a maximum 15% moisture. We check pepper density at purchase to ensure it meets the grade and quality needs of our clients. We transport the goods to our factory and dry them on raised beds to a maximum 12% moisture, verified by calibrated moisture metres.

To remove extraneous material and to separate pinhead berries, the pepper is precleaned through a spiral. It then passes through a seed cleaner with an air separation chamber that divides light and heavy parts (dust, feathers, twigs, stones), a sieve to remove large extraneous material, a grader to extract light berries and then a trieur (cylinder grader) to separate medium and bold corns. Finally, we pass the cleaned pepper once more through the spiral to remove any potential remaining extraneous material. All product is metal detected.

The minimum order quantity is 100 kilograms. A twenty foot container holds around 14 metric tons and a 40 foot container around 28 metric tons. Containers are lined with dry bags to absorb moisture and kraft paper.

Standard packaging is food grade polypropylene bags with a Tanzanian Bureau Standards certificate. Environmentally friendly food grade jute or locally sourced sisal options are available for a premium.

What the process looks like

All our spices are processed at our factory in Muheza, Tanga, Tanzania where our experienced team uses a range of processing equipment including graders, slicers, crushers, dryers, washers, air separation, metal detection and gravity spirals.