Vietnam: Staking a "King's" share
When it comes to production and export of spices, India has reigned supreme
for many hundreds, if not thousands of years. India's spice supremacy has been
strongly linked to its production of peppercorns which, at one time,
represented a steadier currency standard than gold as coins were known to
contain variable amounts of the precious metal. Hence, the spice became known
as 'Black Gold'.
Also
hailed as the 'King of Spices', pepper is one of the oldest and best-known
spices in the world, and it continues to be the most widely used spice in the
world today. The monsoon forests of the Malabar coast in southwest India are
home to this aromatic and pungent seasoning and the region continues to produce
the highest qualities of pepper (e.g. Malabar and Tellichery) for
export. But, when it comes to volume of world production, there is undeniably a
new contender to the "King's" throne.
In 2001, Vietnam became the world's largest exporter of pepper, overtaking Indonesia and Brazil. In the first half of the year, sales had already exceeded the 36,000 tonnes exported in the previous year and total exports for Vietnam in 2001 were expected to be well over 50,000 tonnes. The main importers of this new source of pepper are Singapore, followed by the Netherlands, China and the Middle East, although exports are being sent to over 30 countries and territories worldwide. However, although export volume in the past few years has dramatically increased as a result of increased production and bumper harvests, severe weather early in 2001 and plummeting world pepper prices has led to the lowest prices for pepper ever recorded. For small-scale farmers in the Mekong river-delta provinces of Vietnam, who have rushed to cash in on the booming export market, their successful involvement in growing this non-traditional cash crop may be short-lived. (See also An awful lot of coffee in Vietnam Focus On Coffee, edition 01-4)
Phu Quoc Island in southern Vietnam is one of the country's biggest producers of the high-quality Piper nigrum lin bred for the export market, although traditional varieties of pepper are also grown there. The island, home to 700,000 people, currently has over 700 ha under pepper, a small percentage of the total (26,500 ha) dedicated to the crop across Vietnam but nevertheless an important part of the island's economy. Traditionally, the islanders' livelihoods have been centered round fishing and small-scale cash crops but over 10,000 people are currently involved with pepper production, either as farmers or labourers who process the crop.
Pepper plantations are small, on average about one to two hectares, with
around 3-5,000 pepper "chimneys", each of which holds up to five
plants twisting round a supporting 4m-high wooden pole.
As pepper berries ripen, they turn from green to yellow and then to
red. If the end product is to be black peppercorns, the pepper spikes are
picked green, just before they begin to ripen, dipped in boiling water to
disinfect them and then sun-dried. As the berries dry, the peppercorns shrivel
to give their characteristic wrinkled appearance and, as a fermentation process
similar to that in tea leaves occurs, their colour becomes deep brown or black
in colour. In Vietnam, harvesting takes place from February to June and 90-95%
of the crop is exported, although domestic consumption is beginning to
increase.
Despite proposals by the Agricultural Planning and Design Institute to expand the pepper growing area throughout Vietnam, farmers on the island (situated 47km off the mainland) currently receive little technical assistance. They are also vulnerable to city traders, who are able to set the pepper price regardless of world prices. With falling world prices, some agricultural authorities have stepped in to provide more support to farmers. But, greater co-operation between pepper farmers and local authorities is still required, particularly with extension advice on technical advances and production methods to raise greater awareness amongst farmers.
