Willem Scato van Walt Meijer, General Director of Nedspice Processing Vietnam Ltd., speaks at a meeting in HCM City on May 11 to review last year’s production and export of pepper. (Source: VNA) HCM City (VNA) –Vietnam’s output and export of pepper increased sharply last year, but theirprices and thus turnover from exports fell, according to the industryassociation.
The Vietnam Pepper Association (VPA) and industry-related authorities attendeda meeting on May 11 in HCM City to review last year’s performance.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the GeneralStatistic Office, Vietnam has around 150,000 hectares under pepper and outputlast year was 240,000 tonnes, or 48 percent of global production.
According to the VPA there was a decrease in the use of pesticides last yearsince farmers are more aware these days of better farming techniques.
Prices have been highly volatile: the price of black pepper for instancedeclined from 133,000 VND per kilogramme in January to 73,000 VND in December.
The General Department of Vietnam Customs said 215,000 tonnes of the spice wereexported for 1.1 billion USD, respectively up 20 percent and down 22 percent.
The reasons for the falling prices include climate change, a massive spike inthe area under pepper, farmers’ inexperience, which have contributed to risingoutputs but with poor quality.
In the first quarter of this year prices were around 30 percent lower than ayear ago, the VPA said.
Vietnam’s exports this year are expected to be comparable to that of last yearsince the industry will continue to face all the current challenges such asclimate change and diseases.
VPA plans to work more closely with farmers and businesses to help them complywith regulations and standards for pepper production and export and providemarket information to help them make suitable decisions.
The Western Highlands Agriculture and Forestry Science Institute said they wereresearching into better pepper strains capable of withstanding diseases.
Willem Scato van Walt Meijer, General Director of Nedspice Processing VietnamLtd., which has been operating in Binh Phuoc province for the last five years,said quality control for exports and working closely with farmers were the keysto resolving the problems.
“We have a network of 1,600 farmers and trained them very carefully, and do 100percent tracking and tracing of all our farms, which allows us to help certainfarmers improve, monitor the effectiveness of each farmer, and rewardoutstanding farmers.”
Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuong had said at ameeting in January that the rapid increase in land under pepper should be addressedquickly and the pepper farming land should be reduced.-VNA
VNA
