A farmer harvest pepper in Cam My district, Dong Nai province (Photo: VNA)Hanoi (VNA) – Links betweenenterprises and coffee and pepper farmers need to be enhanced to improve theeconomic value and competitiveness of the two products.
This idea was agreed on by Deputy Ministerof Agriculture and Rural Development Le Quoc Doanh and representatives from theVietnam Coffee-Cocoa Association (VICOFA) and Vietnam Pepper Association (VPA)at their working session on April 11.
VICOFA General Secretary Nguyen Viet Vinhsaid that enterprises and farmers currently do not connect well because ofintermediaries who benefit much from business deals.
In 2016, Vietnam ranked second in the worldin coffee exports. It sold 1.78 million tonnes of coffee for 3.34 billion USD,up 32.8 percent in volume and 25 percent in value. However, export valueremained low as most coffee beans were exported unprocessed.
Similarly, Vietnam mainly exports rawpepper, but a lack of varieties and diseases are causing a decrease in thequality of Vietnamese pepper.
VPA Deputy General Secretary Nguyen Mai Oanhsaid that although the ministry of agriculture and rural developmentestablished a pepper research centre in Gia Lai province, Vietnam has to datehave no standard set of varieties.
She requested more efforts to find goodpepper varieties suitable for Vietnam’s land and weather.
Foreign partners are willing to pay 10-20percent higher than normal if Vietnam can provide clean and safe pepper, sheadded.
According to Deputy Minister Doanh, 98percent of Vietnamese pepper is shipped abroad. Therefore, he asked businessesto work with farmers to ensure safe and sustainable pepper production.
In 2016, Vietnam’s pepper exports reached177,893 tonnes, earning 1.43 billion USD, an increase of 35.3 percent in volumeand 13.5 percent in value year-on-year.-VNA
VNA
