This is information given at the Seminar to promote the export of Vietnamese pepper and spices under the EVFTA agreement, which has just been held by the Vietnam Pepper Association in Ho Chi Minh City on December 21.
Pepper industry has entered the ranks of exporting more than 1 billion USD
Speaking at the opening of the workshop, Ms. Hoang Thi Lien – President of the Vietnam Pepper Association said that 2022 is a difficult year for the world agriculture industry. The Covid-19 pandemic disrupted the global supply chain, making Vietnam’s agricultural industry also seriously affected. However, the spice industry in general and pepper industry in particular have overcome difficulties to achieve positive results.
According to preliminary statistics of the Vietnam Pepper Association (VPA), progress from the beginning of the year to the end of November 2022, Vietnam exported 211,507 tons of pepper of all kinds. Total export turnover is estimated at US$911.1 million, accounting for 44.2% of the world’s export turnover, making Vietnam the number one pepper supplier in the world.
Vietnam is also a major importer of pepper with over 34,000 tons (as of November 2022). The two main types of imported pepper are black pepper and white pepper, with whole pepper and ground pepper products.
Besides pepper, other spices also had positive changes such as cinnamon, anise, ginger, turmeric, chili, cardamom, nutmeg, cloves, vanilla. Especially, cinnamon export turnover as of November 2022 reached 267.5 million USD; recovery reached 115 million USD… It is forecast that the whole Vietnamese spice industry in 2022 will reach around 1.5 billion USD.
“This is achieved because we have a good connection between producers, processors, consumers and exporters. The pepper industry compared to other sectors in the agricultural sector is not a big industry. But with the efforts of the past years, this tree has stood in the ranks of exports over billions of dollars. We have confidence that in 2023 we can further boost export turnover for this industry,” shared Ms. Hoang Thi Lien.
Our pepper has a name on the world map, Vietnam is having a strategy to develop a national brand to bring pepper into the global value chain. However, the current limitation is that most of the products are exported raw, fresh and whole grain. Only about 30% of pepper production has been processed.
According to many delegates attending the workshop, our processing capacity is very large, each year can process over 140,000 tons. In addition to participating in the processing of domestic products, we can process pepper for countries that export pepper but have undeveloped processing technology such as Indonesia, Cambodia, Brazil…
Take advantage of FTAs
Besides the US, China, the United Arab Emirates, India, the Philippines, South Korea, Russia, Singapore… The European Union (EU) continues to be the main export market of Vietnamese pepper.
In the first 7 months of 2022, the EU’s total pepper import volume reached nearly 70,000 tons. On average, the EU imports nearly 10 thousand tons/month, the total import value is estimated at nearly 388 million USD.
In which, the EU imports pepper output from Vietnam accounts for about 22-23%, equivalent to the US market and other Asian countries. The whole spice industry exported to this market accounts for nearly 60%. Therefore, Vietnam will have more advantages than some other pepper producing countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Sri Lanka and Cambodia because there are only 4 Asian countries: Japan, Korea, Singapore and Vietnam signed a free trade agreement (new generation FTA) with the EU.
The advantage is concretized when the tax rate is 0% for some Vietnamese spices such as ground or ground pepper, chili, vanilla, cloves…
“Entering the EU is very important, because 27 European countries are a big market, moreover, from the EU we can expand to Eastern European markets such as Poland, Ukraine… and other small markets that are outside. EU”, emphasized Ms. Hoang Thi Lien.
However, according to many experts, the current challenges are technical barriers and the requirements for quality standards in this market are very high. The EU has nearly 600 banned substances in spices. In which, there are about 15 banned substances that Vietnam’s spice industry regularly encounters. That is a big challenge that our country’s spice industry must meet to export.
With more than 500 million users, the EU is the world’s largest trading bloc with GDP growth averaging 0.9% per year. Along with the US, Europe is the world’s largest black pepper importer, accounting for one-third of global imports.
Black pepper is a common and irreplaceable product and an important spice in the European market. Nearly 90% of imported black pepper is whole pepper, the remaining 10% is ground pepper. In the next 5 years, imports of pepper products are likely to increase by 1-2%/year.
“There is still a lot of room, the problem is the level of readiness of Vietnamese businesses to access this market,” said Ms. Nguyen Nhat Minh – Vietnam Insight Company and said that the main difficulty is farmers. pepper growers are accustomed to the old farming methods. Intercropping with other crops such as coffee, durian without strict control of pesticide residues and pesticides has caused many export shipments to be returned.
According to Ban Minh, exporters must closely follow changes in the list of banned substances on crops and must meet legal requirements such as impurity control, food safety, labeling, and traceability. original… make sure to have sufficient certificates of conformity with market standards (usually UNECE or Codex Alimentarius standards must be complied with).
There are also some special requirements with specific market segments, for example organic and fair trade requirements, the market is more focused on environmentally friendly and responsible production. society.
To do this, the state, scientists and businesses must accompany farmers, provide technical and technological support from input to output of products, link production, build growing areas to ensure quality and increase export value for Vietnamese spices.
According to Nongthonviet.vn
