Pepper export volume down 5.7 percent in first half

Tuesday, July 21, 2020 09:08

A farmer is harvesting peppercorn (Photo: VNA)

HCM City (VNA) - Vietnam exported over 166,800 tonnes of peppercorn worth 356 million USD in the first half of 2020, down 5.7 percent in volume and 21.1 percent in value compared to the same period last year, according to the General Department of Customs.

The Vietnam Pepper Association (VPA) said the complicated developments of the COVID-19 pandemic and the declining output of pepper make it difficult for the country to realise its goal of exporting 280,000 tonnes to earn 800 million USD this year.

Chairman of VPA Nguyen Nam Hai said the pandemic is causing severe impacts on the global trade system, and the pepper supply chain has also been disrupted in many markets.

Social distancing measures and travel restrictions including those on cross-border transport activities in many countries, caused a remarkable decrease of Vietnam’s pepper export in the second quarter, Hai noted.

He added that pepper demand was also affected by consumers’ cutting spending on non-essential goods.

In the first six months, pepper export to China and India dropped by 21.4 percent and 37.8 percent, respectively.

Hai said amid the ongoing outbreak of the pandemic, the import demand of the major export markets of Vietnamese pepper such as India, the US and the EU is forecasted to continue to decrease.

In addition, climate change and low price of pepper have made pepper farmers no longer interested in caring for their farms, resulting in reduction of productivity.

Vietnam's total pepper output in 2020 is predicted to reach only 240,000 tonnes, 15 percent lower than that of 2019.

The VPA recommends export enterprises to focus on markets that have lifted restrictions and Asian markets such as China, the Republic of Korea, and Japan, and promote domestic consumption.

Pepper growers should boost cooperation with export enterprises to expand cultivation areas that applied organic and sustainable production processes, towards improving the output and quality of products, Hai said./.