The Serumpun Codex · Aromatics and spices
Sarawak pepper
The black and white pepper of Sarawak's pepper vines.
The entry
- Name
- Sarawak pepper
- Other names
- Rimbas black pepper; white and black pepper
- Scientific name
- Piper nigrum L.
- What it is
- The black and white pepper of Sarawak's pepper vines.
- Knowledge from
- The Iban of Ulu Bayor, Babu Delit, Ng Bayor and Babu Sedebau, whose Rimbas black pepper is a Slow Food Presidium.
- How it is used
- Picked green, then sun-dried for black pepper or soaked and skinned for white.
- In the French Borneo kitchen
- White pepper in the overture and black peppercorn in Course I, River, at Osaka.
- Season and place
- Grown mainly in districts of the Kuching, Samarahan, Sri Aman, Betong and Sarikei Divisions; harvested from March to August.
- Conservation status
- Not applicable: a cultivated crop
- Geographical Indication
- Sarawak Pepper, GI03-00001, held by the Malaysian Pepper Board: registered 4 November 2003 and renewed in 2013 to 4 November 2023. Its renewal since then is being confirmed with MyIPO
- Codex Alimentarius
- CXS 326-2017, black, white and green peppers
- Medicinal knowledge
- Held privately by the community
- Consent
- Given, recorded by CHASS, 30 October 2026
Still to be confirmed: who shared it with Serumpun.
Sources
- Slow Food Foundation
- ARISE+ IPR, GI case study
- Department of Agriculture Sarawak, pepper page
- GBIF species record for Piper nigrum (IUCN category: Not Evaluated)
- Sarawak Government (MFICORD), news, 14 May 2024
- The Star, Sabah, Sarawak lead in protected products, 15 Dec 2025
- Malaysian Pepper Board via PR Newswire, GI-Certified Sarawak Pepper Positioned for Greater Global Recognition, 15 Oct 2026
Added to the Codex on 1 November 2026. Sources last checked on 1 November 2026.
Anyone may cook with this knowledge, commercially too, provided the community it comes from is credited by name. To correct or withdraw this entry, write to the Custodian at connect@chefjameswon.com.
How to cite this entry
Serumpun Sarawak (2026) ‘Sarawak pepper’, The Serumpun Codex, ed. James Won. Available at: https://www.chefjameswon.com/serumpun/codex/sarawak-pepper/ (sources checked 1 November 2026).
Quote any entry with this citation, and name the community whose knowledge it is.