It is undeniable that Vietnam’s pepper industry development has been quite impressive over the past few years, with the changing skin of many rural areas thanks to pepper cultivation. However, it seems that the overheating development (increasing by 3 times only from 2010-2017), without the necessary attention and investment for product quality … is causing both businesses (businesses) and people. Growing pepper faces many risks.
Particularly in Ba Ria-Vung Tau, a report at the new pepper industry conference showed that the pepper growing area of the whole province was nearly double compared to the plan. According to the plan, by 2020, the whole province will have about 7,000 hectares of pepper, but estimates suggest that the area of pepper cultivation could reach 13,200 hectares within the next 2 years.
Indeed, Vietnam’s pepper area in 2017 was 152,000 hectares, an increase of 22.5% compared to 2016. In many other pepper growing regions in the world, the above phenomenon is similar. The balance on the demand side caused pepper prices in 2017 to decline sharply from about VND 200,000 / kg to more than VND 60,000 / kg.
The shock of record price decrease caused Vietnam’s pepper export to increase by 20% in volume but to 22% in turnover.
According to the General Department of Customs, in the first quarter of 2018, the country exported more than 60,000 tons of pepper of all kinds with a turnover of over US $ 222 million. Compared to the same period in 2017, the export output increased by 18%, but the turnover decreased by 31% due to a sharp decline in pepper prices over the past year.
Fortunately, the forecast of the International Pepper Association (IPC) said that this year’s pepper prices, though difficult to recover, will not drop sharply as in 2017 because many countries no longer see great economic efficiency from pepper. At the current price, it does not encourage investment and development.
In 2018, Vietnam will still maintain the leading position in the world in terms of export volume of pepper, equivalent to 2017, with about 180,000-200,000 tons. Particularly estimates of turnover are still unknown to…
Although this year’s forecast for pepper farmers and producers is more optimistic than last year, according to enterprises and general analysis of the Vietnam Pepper Association (VPA), the shock of record price decreases The year 2017 is an early warning sign that a spontaneous production has actually reached the threshold of risk when supply exceeds demand. And above all pepper is a spice item, not an essential consumer goods or food, so the “rescue” of agricultural products will be difficult to promote efficiency as with many other commodities before …
The risk of ‘losing cows’, having to worry about ‘making cages’
Also according to the Ba Ria-Vung Tau Pepper Association, the linkage between authorities, people and businesses is not close, leading to spontaneous development of pepper growing areas; There has been no clear marketing and promotion activities for pepper, the intellectual property right of geographical indications of Ba Ria-Vung Tau has not been exploited nor attached to the national pepper brand. … Along with that, prices fell sharply causing farmers to turn to hoarding goods to wait for prices to rise. The acquisition of many businesses thus has difficulties.
But the “light at the end of the tunnel” has appeared when the pepper areas are closely linked with farmers, of international quality certification, to meet the requirements of exporting to fastidious markets. Although only accounting for about 10% of the total pepper area of the province, but obviously, both businesses and a part of farmers are more aware than ever when it is time to change farming practices, retired from the race. area growth and output.
Ms. Tran Phuoc Hau, Assistant to the General Director of Tran Chau Import Export Service Trading Joint Stock Company, said that this year, this company was continuously pressed by the buyer, the technical barriers in the major markets of Vietnam pepper. is also raised. Part of the difficult reason for exporting pepper lies in the risk of oversupply. “In order to focus on improving the quality of pepper, since 2017, we have built a sustainable pepper production plan and found new markets in Eastern Europe,” Hau said.
In that shift, FDI enterprises seem to be one step faster. General Director of Nedspice Spices Processing Company (Dutch company), Mr. Willem Van Walt Meijer informed: Have cooperated with 1,600 farmers in Binh Phuoc for nearly 7 years with the first goal of ensuring Traceability of products to each farmer. Where quality products are not available, businesses will have an extension team to support the adjustment of cultivation, harvesting and storage processes; There is even a policy of rewarding those households with good products.
“The only solution for Vietnamese pepper now is to improve the quality. More and more Japanese customers come to us and are willing to pay high prices for their satisfactory products, ”said Willem Van Walt Meijer.
2017 was also the year that the phenomenon of pesticide abuse on pepper probably decreased significantly when importing countries never had to issue a warning about the residues of plant protection drugs for lakes. pepper from Vietnam.
In addition to the low price, farmers do not want to spend more on fertilizer, partly because pepper growers have better knowledge of technology and a better understanding of global market trends. when integration.
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