“Belts” to burden billions
Coming to Gia Lai, going deep into the “core” of pepper cultivation in the area of Chu Puh district in the last days of 2019, the gloomy atmosphere covered. The village is deserted, families often only see the elderly, children at home. Almost every family has someone who has to leave the country to work away from home in Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang … to earn money to cover the huge debts left from investment losses in pepper cultivation. Occasionally, “semi-land” signs appear next to houses that are closed and silent, covered with dust.
Meeting Ms. Nguyen Thi Hoa (whose name has changed), a household in Hoa Binh village, Nhon Hoa town, Chu Puh district, she sadly shared: Currently, households in Hoa Binh village are quite difficult towel. 3-4 years ago, pepper began to die off. Many upland fields no longer have pepper trees. A part of pepper left on the field and planted around the house is also about to die, yellowing nursery. “4-5 years ago, my family borrowed 1 billion VND to invest in growing pepper. To date, about 5,000 turrets have died, and more than 1,000 turrets on the field are continuing to die. For about 2 years now, my family does not have enough money to pay interest on the bank because it is not enough to eat every month. Her husband had to work far away from home, his eldest son who finished high school was forced to leave school because his family had no money, ”said Ms. Hoa.
Not yet debt to 1 billion, but hugging a debt of 300 million also makes Mr. Vo Hoai Nhon (Hoa Binh village, Nhon Hoa town, Chu Pu district) stood restless. Depleted with pepper, for more than a year now, Mr. Nhon's family has hung a sign of “selling land”, but only one of them has asked.
Not too tragic to the point of having to sell land, sell houses to pay off debt because he had invested and harvested pepper at the “golden” price period, Mr. Nguyen Van Tam (Phu An hamlet, Ia hrú commune, Chu Puh district) ) expressed: My family is owed 750 million dong, I am trying to do business to pay the debt. The worst thing is that the poor people have just invested in time but not until the harvest date. There are about 200 households in Ia hrú village, almost all households grow pepper. The more you do it, the bigger the debt. About 30% of households borrow banks amounting to billions of dong. On average, each household borrowed several hundred million dong. “Currently, it is estimated that about 70% of households with expatriates come to Ho Chi Minh City to work as debt payment agents. Previously, the people of Chu Puh district got rich because of pepper, but now they are poor because of pepper. The most painful problem is that people are having to pay bank debts and pay monthly interest, ”Mr. Tam shared.
Looking at the overall production, pepper exports in 2019, the Department of Processing and Market Development of Agricultural Products (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development) stated that: Pepper export volume is estimated at 284 thousand tons and 715 million USD, up 23.4 % in volume but down by 5.7% in value compared to 2018. Notably, in 2019, the average export price of pepper was estimated at 2,516 USD / ton, down to 23.6% compared to 2018. Nhu So, after 4 years from 2014 to 2017 is a commodity in the “top” of agricultural exports, billion dollars, “constant price storm” has made Vietnam pepper out of the “top” billion dollars in two consecutive years, 2018 and 2019.
Area increased “hot”, the price “cold” gradually
Analyzing the story of falling pepper prices, Nguyen Nam Hai, President of the Vietnam Pepper Association, said that it was mainly due to the imbalance between supply and demand. In 2013 and 2014, when the price of pepper was highest, about VND 230,000 / kg, farmers in different localities expanded their pepper area. Pepper is even grown in areas that do not meet soil and climate conditions in the hope of achieving high value. Apart from Vietnam, pepper area in other countries such as Brazil, Cambodia … also increased. In short, the world supply of pepper is higher than demand, so the price of pepper will be low.
Clearer evidence for the story of massively increasing the supply of pepper farmers in misery, Mr. Vu Ngoc An, Deputy Director of Gia Lai Department of Agriculture and Rural Development said: The planning of Gia Lai's pepper cultivation to 2020 is 6,000 hectares. However, at the peak time, the area of pepper cultivation in the whole province reached 16,300 ha (household production accounted for 97.4%, enterprises 2.6%). When the price is good, despite planning and recommendations, people still rush to do it. “Besides, it must be added that when pepper prices, pepper growers also focus on fertilizing the root to increase pepper yield to 8-9kg / root. Being pushed too much, pepper plants produced fungi, then pepper fell into a state of rapid death, loss of area, ”Mr. An said.
Around this issue, the Import-Export Department (Ministry of Industry and Trade) assessed: Pepper prices decreased due to increasing global supply. However, only in Vietnam, the quality of a part of pepper is affected by excessive use of chemicals and pesticides, so the price is lower than that of some other countries. 5 years ago, Vietnam pepper was the world leader in productivity and yield. In the past 2 years, many countries such as Brazil, India, and Indonesia have become competitors to Vietnam in terms of output and quality. In particular, the most important is that Brazilian pepper is of better quality with 80% of the world market selling organic standards.
Slow but sure
In the “capital” of Gia Lai pepper, amidst a lot of pepper growing households, pepper prices are low, debts are plagued, and the good news is that there are still rich farmers who are determined to stick with for a long time. with a billion dollars crop this time.
Talking with Mr. Nguyen Tan Cong, Chairman of Nam Yang Tieu Le Chi Agricultural and Services Cooperative (Village 5, Nam Yang Commune, Dak Doa District, Gia Lai) right in the midst of a sultry afternoon at the end of December / In 2019, Mr. Cong said: The cooperative was formed in July 2017 with the initial 15 members and the total charter capital is only VND 55 million, planting an area of 50 hectares of pepper and 40 hectares of coffee. To date, the cooperative has 80 members, planting a total area of 100 hectares of pepper, including 16 hectares of pepper certified organic. In 2019, while the pepper price is below the cost price, only around VND 40,000-45,000 / kg, the Cooperative's organic pepper is still selling at VND 100,000 / kg.
“The co-operative has no inventory of pepper. The selling price of organic pepper is 150-200% higher than that of regular pepper. In the crop year 2018-2019, my family has 5 hectares for growing pepper and the turnover is more than 1 billion dong. At present, pepper of cooperatives is mainly sold to enterprises. The domestic market is quite good and even cooperatives have export partners. However, we are not ambitious to export only medium quantity but good quality products, sell at high prices and orient our branding in the EU, US, Japan markets … ”, Mr. Cong said. know.
The chairman of the cooperative further emphasized: The cooperative does not require all members to do organic drainage. It is important that households need to do drainage in the direction of ensuring the residues of plant protection drugs, ensuring product quality and meeting market requirements. That is the sustainable development direction for this industry.
From the story of Tieu Le Chi Cooperative, it can be seen that it is the calculating method, going slowly but surely, clicking on the quality that is an important factor helping pepper growers not to be “submerged” in the middle of the “storm. price ”raging all the time. And this is how many other pepper growing areas can consider, learn.
Regarding the sustainable direction for the pepper industry, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said that it is important to overcome the problem of rapidly increasing pepper growing areas, especially in unsuitable areas, with too high intensive farming in the period. good price segment; pepper production in the direction of GAP, ensuring food hygiene and safety is not yet comprehensive; organizing production, preliminary processing and deep processing of pepper are still limited …
In addition to the above factors, the Import and Export Department stated: In the coming time, an important solution for the sustainable development of the pepper industry is to restructure the product, increase the proportion of export white pepper to 30-40%, pepper powder will reach 20% by 2030; diversify products to meet the market of high quality requirements such as organic pepper, red pepper, ground pepper, pepper plastic …
| According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development: In recent years, the pepper area has increased very fast. In 2001, the whole country had 35.3 thousand hectares; in 2010, the area will be 51.5 thousand hectares; By 2017, there will be over 151.9 thousand hectares; In 2018, the area of pepper has shown signs of decreasing to 149.8 thousand hectares and is expected to be about 140 thousand hectares in 2019. Pepper exports are and will continue to face difficulties due to low prices when supply is greater than demand. and the fierce competition in the world market. Current world demand is about 510,000 tons / year and the average annual increase is only 2 – 3%, while global pepper production increased by 8 – 10%. |
According to the Customs Newspaper
