Exporting pepper is hard to return to the "golden age"?

Slipping

The pepper was considered a "black gold" item, bringing in billions of dollars a year. For a long time, this item has grown to "golden age" level with the strong increasing value of export and the sold pepper goes for a good price. However, from the end of 2016 to now, the situation of exporting pepper is not bright.

According to the latest report of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, in the first 9 months, the export volume reached 181 thousand tons equivalent to 966 million USD, up 23% in volume but down 19% in value over the same period in 2016. It is noted that the average price of pepper in the first eight months was just over $ 5,377 / ton, down 33.9% over the same period last year. Vietnam's largest pepper markets in the first eight months were United States, India, United Arab Emirates, Pakistan and Germany with 39.6% market share.

In September alone, the domestic pepper market also fluctuated. Compared to the end of August, prices of pepper in Gia Lai and Ba Ria-Vung Tau decreased by VND 2,000 / kg to VND 84,000 / kg and VND 88,000 / kg. The pepper prices in Dak Lak - Dak Nong and Dong Nai decreased VND 3,000 per kg the present price is VND 85,000 per kg. The pepper price in Dong Nai province decreased by VND 4,000 / kg, now it is VND 83,000 / kg. In the past nine months, the pepper prices in the country dropped sharply from 35-40% over the same period last year. When it comes to price, it is worth noting that around May, the pepper prices have been bottomed out, the lowest price in 5-6 years. Specifically, the pepper prices in the main raw material areas are Gia Lai, Ba Ria-Vung Tau, Dak Lak, Dong Nai are only about 79,000 to 81,000 VND / kg.

Why does pepper prices so plummet? The answer given by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is due to the limited market demand, the pepper export of enterprises still have no positive signal, in addition to the impact of pepper prices in the world. However, the depth analysis shows that it is as effective today because of the past long time, the price of pepper increased and give to super-profits for growers, so farmers are constantly expanding the area. As evidenced by that, in 2013, there was about 57,000 ha of pepper in the whole country, but so far this number increases about 126,000 ha. Apart from the increase of the production without basing on the planning, in order to increase productivity, take advantage of high prices and when the pepper is affected by disease and insect, farmers planting pepper in many areas have made use of pesticides. This action leads to making the product contain residues of highly active substances, the import market warned, even refused to import.

Focus on quality

It is easy to see that the massive development and the pursuit of profits without really attaching importance to sustainable production are the main reasons for the pepper industry to face a lot of difficulties. To develop stable and take back the position of "golden age”. Solving the above problems is the need to calculate carefully.

According to Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Tran Thanh Nam, to be able to maintain its leading position in pepper export, the close cooperation between the Vietnam Pepper Association and other units under Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development such as Department of Crop Production, Plant protection, the Department of Processing and Market Development of agricultural products play a very important role. The purpose of this coordination is to review and re-plan the area of pepper production. Specifically, the area of newly planted pepper is unsuitable for soil, the Association and the provincial authorities will mobilize people to switch to other crops with higher economic efficiency.

Some experts assessed, in addition to the control area, the key content is to improve the quality of pepper. At first, it is necessary to improve quality, avoiding the situation of exporting and exporting goods that are given back, the processing and export enterprises must be close to farmers to plan the key areas as in Ba Ria – Vung Tau. , Gia Lai, Dong Nai, Binh Phuoc province ... Once the concentrated material areas have been established, new enterprises have embarked on technology investment and transferred the technologies of pepper cultivation to farmers in the direction of real hygiene. The products meet the technical standards of import markets.

As a state management agency, from 2018, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development will implement policies to support human resources for cooperatives and pepper cultivation cooperatives to help the pepper industry gradually develop. Accordingly, the support fund is more than VND 30 billion, including the cost of salaries paid to the two accountants and technical staff in each pepper cultivation cooperative. This support will last for 3 years so that the cooperatives and cooperative groups can effectively implement the role of farmers' representatives in technology transfer, responding to clean pepper cultivation, meeting standards of VietGAP, GlobalGAP, Associating with the company, purchasing raw materials of the farmer households for processing and export.