VN PEPPER INDUSTRY FOCUSES ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Nguyễn Nam Hải, chairman of the Việt Nam Pepper Association, tells Việt Nam News about how to improve the value of the spice and develop the pepper industry.
How do you assess the Vietnamese pepper industry and how can it be developed further?
The pepper cultivation area tripled in five years, from 53,000 hectares in 2013 to 152,000 now. Two or three years ago when pepper prices increased a lot, we [growers] expanded pepper cultivation even into areas that were not suitable for cultivating it.
Not only Việt Nam but also other pepper growing countries like Brazil and Cambodia also expanded cultivation, resulting in a sharp increase in supply in the global market in the last three years, pushing prices down sharply.
We will focus on developing the pepper industry in a sustainable manner. To do so, we must restructure it.
We will not expand the area under pepper but try to reduce it to around 110,000 ha and strive to keep at this level.

But the area has gone up to over 150,000ha now. How does the industry propose to achieve the goal of keeping it at around 110,000ha?
In order to achieve the objective, authorised agencies, especially localities, must persuade farmers to switch from pepper to other crops with higher economic efficiency in places that do not have suitable soil or weather conditions for pepper.
Farmers grow pepper in places without water or suitable climate. Unfavourable weather such as high rainfall in the early part of this year caused diseases and destroyed some pepper farms in these places.
Drought since October has also affected pepper farms, particularly in places that do not have suitable climate or soil for pepper.
How is the pepper export situation this year? What is your forecast for next year?
Pepper exports increased by 8.3 per cent in volume terms but fell by 31.2 per cent in revenue terms in the first 10 months of the year over the same period last year due to a sharp drop in pepper export prices.
Việt Nam will enter a new harvest season between February and March. Pepper output in the 2019 crop will be not as high as forecast due to climate change impacts.
In the global market, supply will remain higher than demand, and thus it will be hard for prices to increase in 2019.
Companies mainly export pepper in raw form with low value. How can they add value to the spice and improve its quality?
To improve the quality of pepper, firstly we need to make growing it sustainable.
Secondly, we need to develop a co-ordinated processing system.
Thirdly, growers must always avoid the abuse of pesticides and chemical fertilisers to retain our prestige in the eyes of foreign customers.
At a time when supply is higher than demand, we should apply modern processing technologies to make high-value products such as pepper oil.
So applying technology to highly process pepper will definitely solve the surplus pepper volume.
The majority of processing plants are standardised to achieve good manufacturing practice and other international standards.
The biggest challenge for the pepper industry is growing the crop.
Compared with many years ago more and more farmers are adopting good agricultural practice (GAP) to ensure food safety and hygiene in accordance with export requirements. But the industry needs to make more efforts to further improve the quality of pepper.
Việt Nam has signed many free trade agreements. What should the industry do to take advantage of the opportunities brought by these agreements?
Free trade agreements offer us the opportunity to raise the position of our pepper industry in the global market, but also entail challenges.
This requires us to restructure the industry to enable it to develop in a sustainable manner, with a focus on ensuring product quality, trace ability and efficiency.
In general, to take advantage of this opportunity, Vietnammese pepper enterprises must firstly focus on ensuring quality.
Secondly, they must develop sustainable farming.
Can you tell us something about organic pepper?
Farming of organic pepper is still modest compared to the country’s potential.
In our plan to sustainable develop the pepper industry, we will focus on expanding the area under organic pepper. — VNS
Source: vietnamnews.vn
VIETNAM ACHIEVES RECORD CASHEW EXPORTS
Việt Nam achieved its highest ever cashew exports in a year in 2017 with shipments worth US$3.52 billion.
It exported 353,000 tonnes, representing a year-on- year increase of 23.8 per cent in value and 1.9 per cent in volume, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
The US, the Netherlands and China remained the biggest buyers, accounting for 35 per cent, 15.6 per cent and 12.9 per cent of the shipments.
Exports to many markets rose sharply, including Russia (up 56.3 per cent), the Netherlands (44.7 per cent), Thailand (41.4 per cent), the US (27 per cent), and the UK (24.8 per cent).
Average export prices were up by over 22 per cent.
While demand rose in the world market, supply was down significantly in many countries, including Việt Nam, pushing prices up, according to cashew companies.
Demand is expected to continue increasing, enabling Vietnamese firms to boost exports in future, according to the Việt Nam Cashew Association (Vinacas).
Vietnamese processors have worked relentlessly to improve their quality, promote their brands and maintain their prestige, and this has played a very important role in the development of the cashew industry, the association said.
Việt Nam has leading processing technologies, it said.
Nguyễn Đức Thanh, Vinacas’ chairman, said despite being the world’s biggest cashew processor and exporter, the industry’s profits are modest.
Vietnamese firms mostly exported at around $10 a kilogramme last year while value-added cashew products were sold at supermarkets abroad at up to $30.
To improve the situation, more and more firms have invested in modern technologies and machinery to make more value-added cashew products, including salted/honey roasted nuts and wasabi- and chocolate-coated nuts.
A number of companies from the US and Singapore have also invested in processing facilities to make value-added cashew products in Việt Nam, he said.
The association as well as businesses in the sector said the current reliance on raw cashew imports is a great risk to the cashew industry.
Local raw cashew supply only meets 20 -35 per cent of demand.
In the first 11 months of last year, companies imported 1.2 million tonnes of cashew, up 27.4 per cent year-on-year, mainly from African countries, with the import prices up by 26.2 per cent last year.
Thanh said the association has collaborated with the Cambodian Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and Cambodian firms to grow 1 million tonnes of cashew on an area of 500,000 hectares by 2022.
Vinacas and its members would buy the entire output and work closely with the Cambodian partners to speed up the project, he said.
For this year, the cashew industry has set a target of reducing exports to 300,000 tonnes while improving the quality of exports and adding value to their products. — VNS
GULFOOD 2020 DUBAI WORLD TRADE CENTRE 16-20 FEBRUARY, 2020



Prosi Thang Long JSC., have pleasure in inviting you to Gulfood 2020 Exhibition in Dubai. The exhibition will be held at the Dubai World trade center from 16th to 20 February, 2020.
Our products will be exhibited at SHEIKH RASHID HALL, STALL R- J 44 and we are glad to welcome you to there. In our stall, we are able to supply all information you need about our products and 2020 crop.


Celebrating its 25th edition in 2020, Gulfood is one of the world’s largest annual food & beverage exhibitions, welcoming Food & Beverage professionals from all corners of the globe to meet for 5 days of business within this central hub for international trade and commerce. Launched as a biennial event in 1987, the exhibition has grown to promote F&B trade between more than 120 countries annually, enabling 5000 providers of raw materials and ingredients to showcase the tastes, trends and innovations that are shaping the future of food and beverage consumption worldwide.
Prosi Thang Long., JSC attends Gulfood exhibition and many other international exhibitions every year. We have built up a wide and strong network of loyal customers throughout the world such as Europe Union, The US, The UAE and Asian countries. We supply a wide range of products, namely pepper, cinnamon cassia, star anise, desiccated coconut and cashew nut.
We would like to encourage you to contact our application team prior to the show and to book a meeting to discuss business and projects during this event. We would be very interested in meeting you. If you are interested in having a chat with us, please visit our stand.


ANUGA 2019 COLOGNE, GERMANY 5-9 OCTOBER, 2019

From 5 to 9 October, 2019 the Anuga took place in Cologne, Germany. This is the food fair of the year for many organizations all over the world.
Prosi Thang Long JSC., have pleasure in inviting you to Anuga 2019 Exhibition.
Our products will be exhibited at 01.1/F – 041B and we are glad to welcome you to there. In our stall, we are able to supply all information you need about our products and 2019 crop.

2019 is a special year because Anugacelebrates its 100th anniversary – a remarkable sign of its significance to the industry. The first Anuga food fair took place in Stuttgart in 1919. Based on the concept of an annual touring exhibition, further events of the “General Food and Beverage Exhibition” were held, among others in Munich in 1920, in Berlin in 1922 and in Cologne in 1924. With around 360 exhibitors and 40,000 visitors, the first Anuga food fair in Cologne was the most successful event since its launch in 1919, which is why the organisers opted for Cologne as the food fair’s permanent location.


We would like to encourage you to contact our application team prior to the show and to book a meeting to discuss business and projects during this event. Please find contact details below:
Mr. Hung: Mobile/whatsapp: (+84) 985817797
We would be very interested in meeting you. If you are interested in having a chat with us, please visit our stand.
GULFOOD 2019 WORLD TRADE CENTRE 17– 21 FEBRUARY, 2019

Prosi Thang Long JSC., have pleasure in inviting you to Gulfood 2019 Exhibition in Dubai. The exhibition will be held at the Dubai World trade center from 17th to 21 February, 2019.
Our products will be exhibited at Hall 6, Stall Z6F26 and we are glad to welcome you to there. In our stall, we are able to supply all information you need about our products and 2019 crop.


Celebrating its 24th Edition in 2019, Gulfood is the world’s largest annual food, beverage and hospitality exhibition which attracts F&B professionals from all over the world to Dubai – a hub for international trade and commerce.
Since its launch in 1987, the exhibition has grown to promote F&B trade between more than 180 countries annually. In 2018 Gulfood set records with 97,000 visitors attending and over 5000 companies from over 185 different countries exhibiting their products.



SIAL PARIS 2018 – INTERNATIONAL FOOD EXHIBITION- 21-25 OCTOBER 2018
The SIAL PARIS Show is one of Europe’s largest and most important food and beverage fairs for exhibitors who wish to showcase their products to new markets and target groups. The theme for the 2018 edition of the show is “The world’s largest food innovation exhibition”.
Our products will be exhibited at 5B J234 and we are glad to welcome you to there. In our stall, we are able to supply all information you need about our products


With a total surface area of 250,000 m2, each of the fairs attracted about 6,500 enterprises to showcase from more than 100 countries around the world, welcoming more than 155,000 visitors from over 190 countries around the world to visit and work in the fair.
This year, of 7200 enterprises from 119 countries in the world, there are 22 Vietnamese enterprises in the fields of agricultural products and food processing.

GULFOOD 2018 DUBAI WORLD TRADE CENTRE 18 – 22 FEBRUARY, 2018
Join us at Gulfood
If you are planning to be in Dubai during Gulfood 2018, we cordially invite you to join us. Your success is at the heart of everything we do and we look forward to connecting with you.
HOURS: 10:00 – 19:00; on the last day exhibition will close at 17:00



Our goal is to satisfy all customers and provide the highest quality products with competitive prices.
On its 23rd edition, Gulfood 2018 will bring together a series of insights and activities to help the global F&B community to make informed business decisions and
- Discover new products and suppliers
- Unveil new business opportunities
- Find solutions to new and evolving global challenges
- Stay up to date with the latest trends in consumer behavior
Since its launch in 1987, the exhibition has grown to promote F&B trade between more than 180 countries annually. In 2018 Gulfood set records with 97,000 visitors attending and over 5000companies from over 185 different countries exhibiting their products.
GULFOOD 2017 – DUBAI FROM 26TH FEBRUARY TO 2 MARCH FEBRUARY, 2017

Prosi Thang Long JSC., have pleasure in inviting you to Gulfood 2017 Exhibition in Dubai. The exhibition will be held at the Dubai World trade center from 26th February to 2 March February, 2017.
Celebrating its 22nd edition in 2017, Gulfood is the world’s largest annual food & beverage exhibition, welcoming F&B professionals from all corners of the globe to meet for 5 days of business within this central hub for international trade and commerce.
Launched as a biennial event in 1987, the exhibition has grown to promote F&B trade between more than 120 countries annually, enabling 5000 providers of raw materials and ingredients to showcase the tastes, trends and innovations that are shaping the future of food and beverage consumption worldwide.

2017 visitor overview
95,000+ Trade attendees
60% International attendees
40% UAE attendees
120+ Trading countries

PROSI THANG LONG commits to bringing high quality products such as pepper, cinnamon, star aniseed, desiccated coconut to our customers. Moreover, we always serve the customers with the best services and impressive packaging.

We would like to encourage you to contact our application team prior to the show and to book a meeting to discuss business and projects during this event. Please find contact details below:
Mr. Hung: Mobile/Whatsapp: (+84) 985817797
We would be very interested in meeting you. If you are interested in having a chat with us, please visit our stand.