A farmer is harvesting peppercorn (Photo: VNA) HCM City (VNA) - Vietnam exported over 166,800 tonnes of peppercorn worth 356 millionUSD in the first half of 2020,down 5.7 percent in volume and 21.1 percent in value compared to the same periodlast year, according to the General Department of Customs.
The Vietnam Pepper Association (VPA) said the complicated developments of the COVID-19pandemic and the declining output of peppermake it difficult for the country to realise its goal of exporting 280,000 tonnesto earn 800 million USD this year.
Chairman of VPA Nguyen Nam Hai said the pandemic is causing severe impacts on theglobal trade system, and the pepper supply chain has also been disrupted inmany markets.
Social distancing measures and travel restrictions including those on cross-bordertransport activities in many countries, caused a remarkable decrease of Vietnam’spepper export in the second quarter, Hai noted.
He added that pepper demand wasalso affected by consumers’ cutting spending on non-essential goods.
In the first six months, pepper export to China and India dropped by 21.4percent and 37.8 percent, respectively.
Hai said amid the ongoing outbreak of the pandemic, the import demand of themajor export markets of Vietnamese pepper such as India, the US and the EU isforecasted to continue to decrease.
In addition, climate change and low price of pepper have made pepper farmers nolonger interested in caring for their farms, resulting in reduction ofproductivity.
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 restrictionsand Asian markets such as China, the Republic of Korea, and Japan, and promote domestic consumption.
Pepper growers should boost cooperation with export enterprises to expandcultivation areas that applied organic and sustainable production processes,towards improving the output and quality of products, Hai said./.
VNA
