Viet Nam Pepper Outlook 2018

The Viet NAM Pepper Outlook (VIPO 2018) was organized on 4-5^th December 2018 by the Viet Nam Pepper Association (VPA) in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT), International Pepper Community (IPC), the European Spice Association (ESA), the American Spice Trade Association (ASTA) .

The meeting was attended by MARD Minister Nguyen Xuan Cuong, Vice Minister of MARD Le Quoc Doanh and more than 200 delegates including spice traders, importers, exporters, government agencies, financial institutes, non-governmental organizations, spices associations from Viet Nam and around the world.

Speaking at the conference, Minister Nguyen Xuan Cuong alleged that VIPO 2018 took place in a very special context: There are no agricultural products in the world having special features like pepper. Currently the total global production area of pepper is ​​about 460,000 hectares, with the total production of less than half a million ton. The production is concentrated in five countries, accounting for 90% of global pepper area. The sector also have the involvement of international industry associations. In principle, industry management should have been very easy. However, in the past 3 years, pepper price has been continuously falling, bringing farmers and other value chain actors at the brink of risk. One of the important reasons for this situation is due to the continuous and sharp upsurge in pepper production area and output over the last few years. The area of ​​pepper increased 3 times in just 5-7 years.

Therefore, the Minister recommended, in order to foster the sustainable development of the sector, it called for drastic sector restructuring. First of all, it is necessary to reduce the area of ​​pepper in unsuitable areas where pepper yield and/or quality is not high enough compared to other crops. The Government’s orientation is to take quality as the crucial development criterion. It is requested all relevant agencies and Vietnamese farmers to take drastic actions, from management, cultivation, harvesting, processing ... Food hygiene and safety will be considered as the first criterion. The Government commits focus on the development of organic pepper. The Prime Minister issued a Resolution on organic agricultural products. In the coming time, Viet Nam will promulgate the Law on Organic Agriculture as an indication of the Vietnamese Government’s determination to reduce chemicals in agricultural products.

In addition, the Minister also proposed the International Pepper Community, international spices associations, as well as pepper manufacturing and trading companies to further research to produce more high-value pepper products, such as perfume, essential oils, ingredients of a variety of goods ... to create added value for this product.