 |
Nhon's family expanded the area under pepper cultivation in 2015, when the pepper price was good, about 280,000 VND / kg. At that time, high pepper prices encouraged farmers to invest in expanding the pepper growing area in Gia Lai. Mr. Vu Ngoc An, Deputy Director of Gia Lai Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said the peak of pepper growing area will reach nearly 16,300ha, while the provincial planning for 2020 is only 6,000ha. Pepper farmers believe that expanding the area of pepper cultivation will be a new beginning. They did not anticipate that the new beginning was unsustainable, with limited seedlings and no effective disease control measures.
Now, many farmers feel the expansion of pepper area is wrong, but they do not have money to pay for bank and plant conversion. Some households choose to sell their land to pay for bank loans and some to work as hired labor.
The State Bank has also tried to give pepper growers an outlet: freezing debts for Gia Lai, the province with the biggest pepper damage in the Central Highlands region. Banks have restructured debt of VND 398.5 billion, adjusted interest rates to reduce by 248.5 billion, frozen loans at social policy banks reached VND 122 million, and offered new loans of VND 1,032 billion to restore production and business. But this debt freezing decision also shows that agriculture and the government have failed to develop the local economy and create livelihoods for the people.
Pepper has a short value chain and farmers are in disadvantaged groups. Meanwhile, the development policy of pepper industry, according to Mr. Hoang Phuoc Binh, General Secretary of Chu Se Pepper Association, is stipulated in general development policies on agriculture and most of them are still on paper. For example, the Government's Decree No. 210/2013 / ND-CP on encouraging businesses to invest in agriculture and rural areas did not come to life, so it was replaced by Decree 57/2018 / ND-CP, but So far there is no circular guiding implementation. Or Decree No. 98/2018 / ND-CP on encouraging cooperative and cooperative development in production and consumption of agricultural products, difficult to implement due to problems related to farmers' perceptions and skills. .
The global agricultural commodity market always follows a cycle of prosperity and recession. The prosperity of Vietnam's pepper industry was achieved when pepper reached the highest price, in the first quarter of 2015, the export price of black pepper was USD 8,772 / ton and white pepper was USD 12,500 / ton. In 2010, the whole country had 51,500 hectares, by 2017 it had increased to over 151,900 hectares, in the context of the world leading countries in pepper such as Cambodia and Brazil expanding production, increasing supply to the market.
 |
Vietnam, a world leader in pepper production and export, still wants to increase exports to a higher level. However, the supply of pepper from Vietnam may be cut off as more and more pepper growers are pushed out of the chain. In addition, the area and production of pepper in Vietnam may also be narrowed due to the fact that farmers do not care and care for pepper gardens, combined with the current source of fast and slow death. , especially in the Central Highlands region. In Gia Lai, the province's pepper area is 16,278ha, but the dead pepper area has reached 5,547ha.
While Vietnam is confused with internal problems, the ability to expand production, increase supply to the market, focusing on Cambodia and Brazil, while world pepper consumption is about 510,000 tons. According to forecasts of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, in the period of 2017-2025, with the demand growth rate of 2.5-3% / year, by 2025 the demand will reach 570,000-590,000 tons and in 2030 it is possible is 640,000-650,000 tons. The demand of the United States and the Netherlands is the largest and will continue to increase until 2030. These are also two export markets of Vietnam, in which the US imports for domestic consumption and the Netherlands imports for consumption and Processing and re-exporting to other countries.
Vietnam's pepper supply to the world is likely to continue its uptrend in the coming years, likely to market 210,000-350,000 tons in the period of 2017-2030. Vietnam's pepper output has doubled in the past 10 years, accounting for 43% of global pepper output. According to Dr. Truong Hong, Acting Director of the Central Highlands Agro-Forestry Science and Technology Institute (WASI), this time is suitable for adjusting the pepper area, reducing from 150,000ha to 100,000ha, in which each province should identify specific areas of pepper to be maintained, the rest will be converted to other crops to ensure livelihoods for farmers. Of course, the pepper industry also needs the State to invest in mechanisms and policies suitable to the market reality.
According to NCĐT
