Pepper is an interesting exception among Vietnam’s export farming goods,as it has maintained a high export value for eight consecutive years,especially in the past three years, the Nhan Dan (People) onlinenewspaper reported.

Accounting for 30 percent in volume and over50 percent of the global market share, Vietnamese pepper has beenaffirming its prestigious status around the world step by step, as othercountries begin looking to Vietnam’s pepper selling price as areference point.

The International Pepper Community (IPC) hasrecently proposed to move its headquarters from Indonesia, previouslythe largest pepper producer, to Vietnam.

Vietnam shipped abroad92,000 tonnes of pepper in the first five months of this year, earning645 million USD in export revenue. This represents a fantastic upwardgrowth of 33.6 percent in volume and 42.3 percent in value.

Accordingto the Vietnam Pepper Association (VPA), if these figures remain steadyfor the rest of the year, Vietnam’s pepper exports in 2014 are likelyto reach about 125,000–130,000 tonnes and bring in record revenue of 1billion USD. The prospect of joining the group of 1 billion USD exportearners was an unthought-of dream for Vietnam’s pepper industry 10 yearsago.

It is the VPA’s belief that Vietnam’s pepper products willdefinitely be able to regulate the pepper price on the world marketprovided there is further consensus between enterprises and pepperfarmers. Pepper is not Vietnam’s only agricultural item withoverwhelming outputs and trade, but it is the country’s first industryto gradually establish its role and impact on the international trademarket.

The 2011–2014 period could be seen as the best stage inthe developmental history of Vietnamese pepper. According to the IPC’sforecast, Vietnamese pepper possesses great potential and manycompetitive advantages, in terms of both volume and price, againstIndonesia and Brazil, the largest pepper exporters prior to Vietnam’semergence.

IPC Executive Director S. Kannan has stated thatVietnam remains the world’s largest pepper producer and exporter underany circumstances. While global economic and financial recession hasadversely impacted enterprises in exporting farming products over thepast three or four years, the pepper industry has maintained its robustgrowth, with many records established year after year in export volume,revenue and selling prices.

The role and status of Vietnamesepepper have been increasingly strengthened in the world market as theinternational pepper community looks to Vietnam with respect,understanding and sharing.

During the 1990s, Singapore had takenits advantages in the world pepper trade with a large import volume ofup to 44,000 tonnes per year, half of which was supplied by Indonesia.However, the figure later fell sharply to just 10,000 tonnes in 2010,which according to the VPA, was attributed to the fact that importersbegan purchasing pepper items directly from producing countries,including Vietnam.

At present, Asia accounts for 36 percent ofVietnamese pepper’s total export market share, followed by Europe, theAmericas and Africa with 34, 20 and 10 percent, respectively.Singapore’s pepper imports have rebounded recently, reaching 20,200tonnes in 2013, with its major supply source turning from Indonesia (28percent of total import volume) to Vietnam (60 percent).

Theworld’s previous largest pepper producers and exporters, Brazil andIndonesia, have been accelerating cooperation with Vietnam in pepperimport and export, with total pepper trading volume up to tens ofthousands of tonnes each year.

From mainly exporting blackpepper, Vietnam now also ships white and powder pepper to European,Middle Eastern and North American nations, adding more value to pepperproducts and bringing in greater profits.

Thanks to Vietnamesepepper’s increasing status and influence on the global market, IPCExecutive Director Kannan has also officially proposed to move the IPCheadquarter from Indonesia to Vietnam.-VNA