According to the Vietnam Pepper Association (VPA), for the first 19 days of June, Vietnam enterprises have exported 7,921 tons of pepper of all kinds including 6,586 tons of black pepper, 1,335 tonnes of white pepper with turnover of 25.9 million USD, reaching 20 million USD for black pepper, 5.9 million for white pepper.
The six-month pepper export volume is estimated to have reached over 70,000 tonnes with export revenue of around US$218 million.
White pepper export prices are usually 1.5 times higher than black pepper . However, in recent years, white pepper output accounts for less than 20% of the country’s total pepper exports.
The International Pepper Community (IPC) has forecasted Vietnam's pepper output would be around 90,000 tons in 2010.
The statistics of the General Department of Customs showed that in five months, the U.S. imported 8.3 thousand tonnes of Vietnam’s pepper, worth nearly US$27 million, up 91.3% in volume and nearly 2, 1 times in value over the same period last year.
The second biggest  market is German with 8.2 thousand tons, up 91.1% and worth nearly US$ 26 million, nearly 2.5 times higher than the same period last year.
In particular, exports of pepper from Vietnam to these two markets in the first five months account for nearly 28% of national  pepper exports  while the figure is only 17% in the first 5 months of 2008 and 16% in the same period of 2009.
Three big pepper importers of Vietnam reaching over 12 million USD are India with 4.4 thousand tons, the United Arab Emirates with 4.2 thousand tons and the Netherlands with 3.7 thousand tons.
Mr. Do Ha Nam, President of the Vietnam Pepper Association (VPA) said
that pepper supply is in a severe shortage. Pepper output of the major exporting countries such as India, Indonesia is predicted slump due to weather and pests. Pepper prices are forecasted to remain at high levels in at least three years.
Currently, Vietnam’s pepper accounted for up to 60% of the market supply. In 2006, total market supply is 200,000 tons, of which Vietnam accounted for more than 120,000 tons.

 

translated by CIS