Poor pepper crop, prices escalating

Black pepper prices have surged to 60,000 dong per kilo from 39,000 dong and are expected to continue increasing and making pepper farmers happy.

The atmosphere in Chu Se and Chu Puh districts, the center of the famous Chu Se pepper brand is very heated these days as small merchants collect pepper from farmers. The price has risen high to 60,000 dong per kilo.

Hoang Phuoc Binh, Secretary General of the Chu Se Pepper Association, remarked that the pepper price has been increasing rapidly, thanks to the world’s economic recovery. The demand is very high in China. Meanwhile, the pepper output is low this year due to the bad harvest. The pepper output in Chu Se, for example, decreased by 30-35 percent with only 12,000 tons harvested.

Binh added that, as Chu Se pepper has much higher quality than pepper from other regions, Chu Se pepper is now purchased at 60,000 dong per kilo.

The price increases have made Chu Se farmers happy. Farmer Huynh Tham has sold eight tons of pepper at 60,000 dong per kilo or nearly 500 million dong, a successful crop.

“I felt worried when I decided not to sell pepper at the beginning of the season and to store pepper instead to sell later. My God, the price has gone up at the end of the crop, which has brought money to me,” he explained.

According to the Vietnam Pepper Association (VPA), Vietnam’s total output decreased by 10 percent this crop, while the output in Binh Phuoc province has decrease by an estimated 30-40 percent. According to Binh, with current prices, farmers can get profits of more than 50 percent.

However, not all farmers in Chu Se are elated about the price increases, because many sold pepper earlier, when the price was just 39,000 dong per kilo.

The pepper price only increases at the end of the season, so many farmers without much capital had to sell at the beginning.

Le Quy Thai, a Chu Se farmer, harvested some 2.5 tons of pepper this crop. “But I mistakenly sold pepper at a loss, while I had to work with sweat of my brow,” he lamented.

Farmer Le Thi Thu Suong calculated that, due to last year’s strong storm, he could get only 3.5 tons from 1500 pepper plants. “I had to sell pepper soon to get money to feed my family. If I had stored up pepper, I would have sold at higher prices. What a pity!” she complained.

Tien phong

Tags: Vietnam Pepper, Vietnam pepper exports