According to the Vietnam Pepper Association (VPA), Vietnam’s pepper exports are currently ranked No. 1 in the world in terms of both output and quantity; maintain competitive advantages, regulate and lead international market prices. The life of pepper farmers increased and became richer. Thousands of pepper growing households earn over 1 billion VND/year.
Vietnam continues to be the world’s largest pepper exporter
Many export agricultural products (exports) dropped in price, including many export products with the largest and second largest quantities in the world, but still could not lead the market, on the contrary, were often pressured by customers. precarious market. Pangasius and rice prices have been low for many months, causing pangasius farmers to have to give up their jobs with heavy losses, rice farmers have not made profits as expected, while pepper products in the past 8 years have doubled in output and prices increased by 8 time.
Farmers decide the price
Mr. Do Ha Nam, Chairman of the Vietnam Pepper Association, said that the reason pepper farmers get richer is because they can decide the selling price, not businesses or customers trading in the world. In the past, farmers often sold out from the beginning of the crop, even selling before harvest, so it was easy for traders to pressure prices. Prices are often pushed down, farmers are not profitable. At present, farmers know how to store pepper and wait for the price to rise to sell. Many farmers also go online to update prices as well as monitor world market developments to make the most accurate decisions.
According to forecasts, pepper production in major exporting countries is at risk of a significant decrease. India, for example, has now finished harvesting with an output of less than 50,000 tonnes, down from expectations at the beginning of the season. Malaysia, Indonesia, Brazil and Vietnam also reduced output. Expected pepper export output in the world in 2013 is 229,000 tons, down 15% compared to last year. Therefore, it will be difficult for the world pepper price to decrease in the coming time.
Area increased but not sustainably
Due to the high price of pepper, the new planting area in many localities also increased “hot” (about 6,000 hectares), bringing the total area to 58,000 hectares, while the planning of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is 50,000 hectares. Many areas with unsuitable soil conditions for growing pepper are also grown in large areas by farmers, leading to poor yield and quality, giving rise to pests and diseases, and many dead pepper gardens. Many households exploit the full yield by all means such as using chemical fertilizers and pesticides, affecting the sustainable development of the pepper industry.
Pepper has the largest export volume, but up to 70% of it is exported in the form of coarse grains, so the value is low. Currently, although there are many processing factories with high capacity, technology and equipment in the country, the capacity of using and processing to create added value for export products is still limited. Marketing, trade promotion, and brand promotion are also limited, lack of initiative, most of them still sell through intermediaries.
According to the association, commercial activities of foreign-invested enterprises (FDI) are growing strongly. The export proportion of FDI enterprises is increasing compared to domestic enterprises, leading to many domestic enterprises reducing their export market share or switching to exporting in small and odd quantities per shipment. To solve this problem, according to Mr. Nam, domestic enterprises need to quickly restructure and link up to improve their competitiveness in order to maintain market share and export market share.
According to VPA, the output of pepper in the 2013 crop is from 90,000-95,000 tons, down 21% compared to the previous season. In the first quarter, nearly 40,000 tons were exported, up 23.5% over the same period last year, with the average price of $6,266/ton of black pepper, and $8,869/ton of white pepper.
Nguyen Hai (Employee Newspaper)
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