The 36th annual session and meeting of the International Pepper Community held in Ho Chi Minh City from November 25 to 27, 2008 attracted the participation of more than 200 producers, processors, importers, exporters and scientists of peppers and seasonings from many nations in the world. The correspondent had an interview with Mr Do Ha Nam, Chairman of the Vietnam Pepper Association (VPA).
As known this is the first time Vietnam hosts an IPC conference. What are the goals of this conference?
This is the first time an IPC conference was held in Vietnam and this is the first time Vietnam holds the rotational presidency of IPC. Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Diep Kinh Tan is the president of IPC. The 36th IPC conference is very important and honourable for the Vietnamese agriculture in general and the pepper sector in particular. This IPC meeting focuses on discussing, ratifying and deciding important matters concerning production, import, export, processing and quality of pepper products and other activities of IPC in the following years.
-What is the expectation of Vietnam in this 36th IPC session and meeting?
At their first speeches, all international delegations highly appreciated the Vietnamese pepper industry. This year event is the largest in terms of attendance. Delegates wanted to come to Vietnam to study and establish friendship relations with local partners to form a quality, unified and mutual developing pepper market.
-So, what is the advantage of the Vietnamese pepper industry?
The soil and climate in Vietnam are very suitable for growing peppers which have good essential oil and pulp. So far, Vietnam has exported pepper to nearly 80 countries and territories in the world. Its pepper accounted for 30 -40 per cent in developed nations and 60-70 per cent in Africa and Asian nations. Especially, US importers are very keen on Vietnamese pepper. Since 2003, Vietnam is the world’s largest exporter of pepper with an annual volume of 80,000 – 100,000 tonnes, accounting for 31.2 per cent of the world’s supply, and with a revenue of nearly US$300 million. The US is the most potential market. Over the past five years, the US imports 10,000 - 20,000 tonnes pepper per annum with the peak in 2005 with 20,000 tonnes.
- Next year is forecast a hard period for exported agricultural products. How can Vietnam maintain its leading position in the world?
Vietnam’s entry to the WTO is an advantage to boost up growth. Therefore, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development defined that Vietnam would maintain the pepper growing area of 50,000 ha in the 2005 - 2010 period and produce 100,000 tonnes a year. The ministry will focus on transferring cultivation, harvesting, transferring and preserving techniques under the good agriculture practice (GAP) standards. Accordingly, the Vietnamese pepper industry will take care of pepper for specific markets. It will adopt the US’s ASTA standards, global ISO and IPC standards and Europe’s EAS standards.
- How will the pepper sector do to stabilise the export volume?
Encouragingly, Vietnamese pepper exporters are investing in renovating post-processing technology as well as post-harvesting processes. Especially, Vietnam is very lucky to win supply contracts with world-leading supermarkets and importers. At present, VPA has 17 clean pepper processing factories, in which 10 factories have steaming processing systems. VPA also encourages producers and processes to adopt ASTA standards. If we increase the ASTA-standardised pepper, we will have more chance to penetrate the US market. Thus, we have to maintain and improve the quality to expand the export market share in the next few years.
- With its available advantage, does VPA plan to scale up the growing area in the coming years to expand the export markets?
In fact, Vietnam’s advantage is the most productive pepper trees in the world. Therefore, its selling price is usually at the world’s lowest level. But, we know that if we invest too much in a potential field, it may turn highly risky. In addition, the Vietnamese agricultural sector also has other cash-earning crops like rubber, coffee and cashew. Thus, I think we should keep the current area but focus on diversifying crops and improving processing and preserving techniques to ensure quality to avoid risks.
- At the meeting, many delegates proposed setting up pepper exchange. Does VPA have any plan to create a pepper trading floor in Vietnam?
This is a rule. Like other industries, the pepper sector needs to have its own trading floors. Vietnam has the demand while its suppliers have to refer to the Indian pepper exchange floor to decide the price. However, this needs complete consensus to avoid negative impacts. We will have two benefits if we have a trading floor: Real commodity and commodity on paper. In the long term, Vietnam needs to have one like India but it is not mature enough to run one
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