Vietnam top pepper exporter

Vietnam top pepper exporter

Associated press, Hanoi

Vietnam overtook Indonesia to become the world's largest
pepper exporter in 2001 with shipments of 56,000 tons, an
official said Monday.

However, the country earned just US$90 million from its pepper
exports in 2001, much less than the $146 million it received from
exporting 37,000 tons of pepper in 2000, the official from the
Ministry of Trade said.

Vietnam's average export price for pepper in 2001 was $1,607
per ton, compared with $3,946 per ton in 2000, she said.

The official attributed the slump in world pepper prices to an
oversupply. In recent years, Vietnam has rapidly increased its
production of several commodities, including pepper, coffee and
rice, contributing to world price declines.

All of Vietnam's top nine agricultural exports suffered price
declines in 2001, but pepper prices plunged the most, the
official said.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, predicted
only a slight recovery in world pepper prices in 2002.

In 2001, Indonesia exported 45,000 tons of pepper, Brazil
34,000 tons, Malaysia 26,000 tons and India 25,000 tons, the
official said.

In 2001, Vietnam's export revenues rose 4.5 percent to $15.1
billion, much lower than the government's target of a 16 percent
increase to $16.3 billion, largely because of plummeting world
prices for Vietnam's agricultural products, she said.

Communist Vietnam began allowing private agriculture about 15
years ago, replacing a disastrous experience with collectivized
agriculture that brought the country perilously close to famine.

Vietnam, once a rice importer, is now the world's second
largest rice exporter after Thailand, and has come from nowhere
to become the world's second largest coffee exporter behind
Brazil.

Vietnam began exporting pepper only 10 years ago.