Vietnam raked in US$202 million from exporting 58,000 tons of pepper in the first seven months of 2008, up 30 per cent against the same period of last year, according to the General Statistics Office (GSO).
The country expected to raise the export revenues to US$290 million by the year’s end with total export volume of 80,000 tons of pepper.
Over the past eight years, Vietnam has kept its first position in the world in pepper export volume, with 70,600 tons a year, on average, accounting for 31.2 per cent of the world.
Vietnamese pepper is now available at 80 countries and territories worldwide.
Do Ha Nam, chairman of the Vietnam Pepper Association, said the average export price of Vietnamese pepper was US$3,300 per ton, up US$100 a ton from last year. But he added that prices many decrease in the second half of the year as Indonesia, Malaysia, Brazil and Sri Lanka harvest crops.
“Vietnamese pepper quality is improving as the country has ten pepper processing plants meeting U.S. and EU’s market demands,” Nam said.
But the country’s pepper export value is not as high as expected because among six provinces in Vietnam growing pepper, only central highlands Gia Lai province built up Chu Se pepper trademark.
For the stable development of Vietnamese pepper sector, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development planned to keep pepper area at only 50,000 hectares, with average output of 100,000 tons yearly.
Experts said to keep the 1st position, the sector should grow pepper according to Good Agriculture Practices and give priority to setting up trademark. (VNA, GSO July Edition)
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