This time is suitable for adjusting the pepper area, reducing it from 150,000ha to 100,000ha, in which each province should specify the area of pepper to be maintained, the rest should be converted to other crops. to ensure the livelihoods of farmers.
The market downturn has excluded many pepper growers from the supply chain…
Chopping apricot tree leaves, Mr. Vo Hoai Nhon, Nhon Hoa commune, Chu Puh district, Gia Lai province, not only wants to create a new look for the house on Tet holiday, he also sends it in the hope of selling the pepper growing area soon. . After more than a year of trying to stick to the pepper tree, Mr. Nhon and his family decided to put up a sign to sell a pepper garden 10m wide and 100m long, the land they borrowed from a bank to expand the planting area when the price was affordable. At this point, he regrets the time when people paid 40 million dong per square meter, and now, wants to sell that price but no one buys.
Mr. Nhon’s family expanded the pepper growing area in 2015, when pepper had a good price, about 280,000 VND/kg. At that time, high pepper prices prompted farmers to invest in expanding pepper growing areas in Gia Lai. Mr. Vu Ngoc An, Deputy Director of Gia Lai Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said that the peak pepper growing area was nearly 16,300 hectares, while the province’s plan to 2020 was only 6,000 hectares. Pepper growers believe that expanding pepper planting area will be a new start. They did not anticipate that the new beginning was not sustainable, with limited seedlings and no effective disease control measures.
Now, many farmers feel that it is wrong to expand the pepper area, but they don’t have the money to pay the bank and switch crops. Some farmers choose to sell their land to pay for bank loans, some work as hired laborers.
The State Bank also tried to give pepper growers a way out: to freeze debts for Gia Lai, the province with the largest pepper losses in the Central Highlands. Banks have restructured debts of VND 398.5 billion, adjusted interest rates down to VND 248.5 billion, frozen loans at the Bank for Social Policies to reach VND 122 million, and at the same time made new loans of VND 1,032 billion to restore production and business. But this debt freeze decision also shows that the agricultural industry and the government have failed to develop the local economy, creating livelihoods for people.
Pepper has a short value chain and farmers are in the disadvantaged group. Meanwhile, the policy to develop the pepper industry, according to Mr. Hoang Phuoc Binh, General Secretary of Chu Se Pepper Association, is stipulated in the general development policies on agriculture and most of it is still on paper. For example, the Government’s Decree No. 210/2013/ND-CP on encouraging businesses to invest in agriculture and rural areas has not come to life, so it should be replaced by Decree 57/2018/ND-CP, but To date, there are no guidelines for implementation. Or Decree No. 98/2018/ND-CP on encouraging the development of cooperation and association in the production and consumption of agricultural products, difficult to implement because of problems related to farmers’ awareness and skills. .
Global agricultural commodity markets have always followed 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 country had 51,500 hectares, by 2017 it had increased to over 151,900 hectares, in the context of the world’s leading pepper countries 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 export turnover 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. Besides, the area and output of pepper in Vietnam may also be narrowed due to the fact that farmers do not pay attention to caring for and protecting pepper gardens, combined with a common source of diseases that die quickly and slowly. , especially in the Central Highlands. In Gia Lai, the province’s pepper area is 16,278 hectares, but the dead pepper area has reached 5,547 hectares.
While Vietnam is confused with internal problems, the ability to expand production and increase supply to the market is concentrated in Cambodia and Brazil, while world consumption of pepper products reaches about 510,000 tons. According to the forecast of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, in the period 2017-2025, with a demand growth rate of 2.5-3%/year, by 2025 the demand will reach 570,000-590,000 tons and in 2030 it may be 640,000-650,000 tons. Consumption demand of the US 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 domestic consumption and consumption. processed and re-exported to other countries.
The supply of Vietnam’s pepper to the world is likely to continue to increase in the coming years, potentially supplying the market with 210,000-350,000 tons in the 2017-2030 period. Vietnam’s pepper output has doubled in the past 10 years, accounting for 43% of global pepper production. According to Dr. Truong Hong, acting director of the Central Highlands Agro-Forestry Science and Technology Institute (WASI), this is a suitable time for adjusting the pepper area, reducing it from 150,000ha to 100,000ha, of which each province should determine specific Pepper area needs to be maintained, the rest is converted to other crops to ensure livelihoods for farmers. Of course, the pepper industry also needs the State to invest in mechanisms and policies in line with market realities.
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