Alina Sapkota, Bakersalts

As more spice routes opened up peppercorn trade swelled to 70% of the global spice trade. As new routes opened and the spice became more available the price dropped and pepper firmly became part of local food and tastes where almost every recipe calls for adding “salt & pepper to taste”. So ubiquitous is pepper that it remains the world’s largest traded spice. Drought and quality are the main drivers of the price of fresh pepper.