Pepper exports still increased during the Covid-19 epidemic, coupled with speculation, which helped the price of pepper to increase slightly in key growing areas.
A pepper garden in Long Khanh, Dong Nai. Photo: Thanh Son
According to Mr. Hoang Phuoc Binh, Vice Chairman of Chu Se Pepper Association (Gia Lai), in recent days, the price of pepper in this area has tended to increase slightly and is currently at around VND 38,000-39,000 / kg.
Information from the Center for Industry and Trade Information (Ministry of Industry and Trade) shows that pepper prices are increasing in all key growing areas, some places have returned to the 40,000 VND / kg mark.
Specifically, on 6/5: black pepper price in Ba Ria – Vung Tau was 40,000 VND / kg; Binh Phuoc 39,000 VND / kg, Dong Nai 39,000 VND / kg …
Mr. Binh said that pepper price increased thanks to import demand starting to return to some markets. After a pause due to the Covid-19 epidemic, Chinese customers returned to buy both black and white pepper. In particular, white pepper is being bought by them.
Besides, due to the recent low price of pepper, is considered to have been at the bottom, so many speculators actively bought. This also contributed significantly to the price increase of pepper.
According to the Import and Export Department (Ministry of Industry and Trade), the requirements of social isolation and restriction of goods clearance of many countries around the world to prevent Covid-19, caused the global supply of pepper to be interrupted. This is said to be one of the main reasons for the price of pepper exported in some major producing countries.
It is worth noting that while the Covid-19 epidemic has made many exports of many agricultural products of our country face great difficulties, the export of pepper in recent years, though affected somewhat in some markets school, but generally still fairly normal.
According to estimates of the Export-Import Department, pepper exports in April reached 40 thousand tons, worth $ 80 million, up 8.2% in volume, but down 14.3% in value compared to April 2019. . Generally for the first 4 months of 2020, export of pepper reached 121 thousand tons, worth US $ 256 million, up 11.9% in volume, but down 9.4% in value over the same period in 2019.
According to the Import and Export Department, in the context of the complicated Covid-19 epidemic affecting Vietnam's pepper export activities, the pepper industry has changed the structure of export products. Accordingly, businesses are upgrading the processing stage to improve product value, and improve competitiveness in the world market in the near future.
The export of pepper increased, indicating that the product has remained relatively stable over the past 4 months. The decline in value was mainly due to the supply still exceeding the demand, causing the price of pepper in the world market in the first months of this year to continue to decline compared to the same period in 2019.
Nedspice Group forecasts that although global pepper production is expected to decline by 12% in 2020, it is expected that inventories will still be higher than total market demand.
In some major producing countries, pepper production remained high. For example, in Vietnam, production this year is estimated at about 250 thousand tons. Plus 90,000 tons of inventory from last year, the total supply of pepper is 340 thousand tons. Also in India, pepper output this year is forecast to increase 20 thousand tons compared to 2019 and reach 65 thousand tons.
According to Binh, in the coming months, after the epidemic is controlled, European and American customers … will return to the market, the price of pepper may continue to increase, but the increase is not much, because this year, World pepper market is still in a state of supply exceeding demand.
However, by the end of this year and next year, pepper prices are likely to increase more sharply. The reason is that Vietnam's pepper output will decrease significantly. In the past few years, due to the low price of pepper, many pepper growers are no longer able, or no longer care much about investing in pepper gardens. Therefore, while the area of pepper has not been much reduced, the output of the next crops may be reduced sharply due to the reduction of overall productivity.
