Last year, 156,396 tonnes of pepper were exported worth US$1.2
billion, the highest figures so far in both volume and value, chairman
Do Ha Nam told a review meeting in HCM City yesterday.
This represented a year-on-year increase of 16.38% in volume and 34.72% in value.
With a forecast of pepper to fall significantly over the last year
due to unfavourable weather and disease, export volume would fall by
about 10% to 144,000 tonnes this year, he said.
In the first four months of the year, export volume dropped by 24%
over the same period last year, with only 57,000 tonnes of the spice
exported, but export revenue went up by 2.1% to reach $521 million.
According to the International Pepper Community, there had been
little change in both supply and demand for the spice in the world
market, which had kept prices high, he said.
Pepper export prices had increased from earlier this year, and were expected to be 20% higher year-on-year, he said.
But despite its achievements, Vietnam's pepper industry faces a
number of challenges, such as stunted plants and overexploited pepper
farms with more disease and decreased productivity. Climate change has
also affected farms.
High prices have persuaded farmers to expand cultivation without any
planning, according to Nguyen Mai Oanh, the association's deputy
chairwoman. The overuse of fertilisers of farmers has caused the plants
to degenerate quickly and become vulnerable to disease.
"Pepper prices might remain high in the short term, but if production
is not monitored carefully, there could be a glut," said Hoang Phuoc
Binh, deputy chairman of the Chu Se Coffee Association.
With import markets like the US and EU demanding higher food safety
requirements, the association and delegates at the meeting called on
farmers, processors, and distributors to focus more on safety and
hygiene norms.
Ha Huy Thang, general director of Petrolimex International Trading
Joint Stock Company (Pitco), one of the leading companies in processing
and exporting pepper, said the Government and the Ministry of
Agriculture and Rural Development should develop measures to control the
planting of pepper without advance planning and impose strict
punishment on those using banned plant-protection drugs.
In addition, the agricultural sector should offer more instruction to
pepper farmers who follow good agricultural practices (GAP), he said.
"Improving value and quality is the target for Vietnam's pepper industry," Nam said.
To mitigate risks in production and trading, the association's
members and farmers should produce more "clean" spices to satisfy demand
of import markets, he said.
Vietnamese pepper products are exported to 97 countries and
territories, with the US and Singapore, United Arab and India being the
largest buyers.
The country has around 80,000ha under pepper, 52,000ha of which can
now produce harvests, with an average output of 2.4 tonnes per ha.