Harvesting pepper in Dak Lak (Photo: VNA)

Earnings from pepper export are forecast to reach 1 billion USD this year thanks to growing prices and demand, especially in China.

The General Department of Vietnam Customs said pepper export revenue soared by 47 percent annually to 719 million USD in the first nine months of this year, mainly driven by rising world price. Meanwhile, the Vietnam Pepper Association (VPA) estimated that 230,000 tonnes of pepper were shipped abroad as of the late October, bringing home around 800 million USD.

According to the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Department of Export-Import Administration, pepper imports of most key markets rose in early 2021, except for China which only bought 41,000 tonnes in January-September this year, down 7.2 percent annually. Therefore, its import demand is predicted to soar later this year, thus exerting a positive impact on Vietnam’s pepper export prices.

Notably, Vietnam’s share in China’s pepper imports hiked from 25.66 percent in the first nine months of 2020 to 30.54 percent in the same period this year.

However, the VPA said the volume of pepper stock in Vietnam for the last two months of the month is not high, estimated at around 25,000 – 30,000 tonnes available for export this year. With the export prices of some 4,000 USD per tonne, earning revenue could reach around 100 million USD or beyond in two remaining months of this year./.