Vietnam’s 2010 Pepper Exports May Fall 26 pct

Vietnam, the world’s top black pepper exporter, expects shipments of the spice this year to fall 26 percent to around 100,000 tonnes as stocks carried over from last year were low, an industry official said on Monday.

A decline in exportable pepper could push up average prices, which fell by a quarter in 2009 to $2,607 a tonne from $3,446 the previous year, traders and industry officials said. « Last year pepper exports reached a very high volume so the stock carried over to this year is small. Thus, we expect exports to be on par with output of around 100,000 tonnes, » Do Ha Nam, chairman of the Vietnam Pepper Association, told Reuters.

Last year Vietnam shipped a record 136,500 tonnes of pepper, up 51 percent from 2008, when sales of 90,300 tonnes generated $311 million, government statistics show. « Price gains could be good this year if the selling pace is managed as well as last year, » Nam said in a telephone interview. He gave no data on stocks carried over from last year.

An Industry and Trade Ministry report said the export volume last year included 20,000 tonnes carried over from 2008. The volume and value of exports in 2009 were both at record levels, the pepper association said, adding that exporters sold half the shipments in the last months of the year when prices recovered from August.

Export prices further recovered last month, with the average price advancing 15 percent from last year to $3,000 per tonne, government statistics show. A leading exporter in India said in a Reuters poll on Jan. 5 that prices would receive support as Vietnam, Indonesia and India had « very low carryforward stocks », while he forecast consumption would be the same as last year.

Production of around 100,000 tonnes in Vietnam this year would represent a 10 percent fall after adverse weather and pests affected key growing areas in the southern province of Binh Phuoc and the Central Highlands province of Gia Lai, the association’s report said.

Nam said farmers in southern Vietnam were expected to start harvesting their pepper crop soon, after the week-long Tet festival to mark the Lunar New Year that ends on Feb. 21. Vietnam exports most of the pepper it grows and also buys Cambodian spice for re-export.

The country planned to keep the pepper acreage unchanged at around 50,000 hectares (123,550 acres) and raise the average yield by a third to three tonnes per hectare this year, the association said. It said farmers had started using organic planting measures, reduced reliance on pesticide and avoided chemical fertiliser.

Source : Flexnews