Vietnam could ship more than 1 billion USD worth of pepper abroad for the whole 2024 on the back of high global demand and limited supply, according to the Vietnam Pepper and Spice Association (VPSA).

Vietnam exported 142,586 tonnes of pepper in the first half of this year, down 6.8% in volume but up 30.5% in value, the Vietnam Pepper and Spice Association (VPSA) has reported.

The Vietnam Pepper and Spice Association has expected pepper prices to continue rising every week.

Pepper prices are forecast to soon exceed 100,000 VND per kilo on the domestic market.

Vietnam’s pepper exports have shown signs of recovery, coming in at 45 million USD in September, a year-on-year surge of 22.2 percent.

Pepper prices this year are unlikely to recover after a strong reduction in 2019 due to abundant supply.

The Department of Farm Produce Processing and Market Development (DFPPM) under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) has forecast that pepper prices will struggle to recover in July and the rest of the year.

Over the last ten days, pepper prices have fallen from an already low 82,000 VND (3.65 USD) to 72,000 VND per kilogramme, but pepper farmers in the Central Highlands continue to hold out for higher prices.

The price of black pepper in the Central Highlands provinces has continued to plummet, hitting 80,000 – 82,000 VND per kg, a low record in the last seven years.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) announced recent drops in pepper prices, both domestic and exported, in October.

Vietnam earned 1.2 billion USD from the export of nearly 145,500 tonnes of pepper in the first nine months of the year, a year-on-year increase of 31.5 percent in volume and 13.1 percent in value.