PlantwisePlus Blog

Contributed by CABI-SEA team
In collaboration with the Vietnam Pepper Association (VPA), Plantwise Vietnam organized a meeting with the various stakeholders of the Vietnamese pepper industry on 16 December 2016. The meeting was held at the Institute of Agricultural Science for Southern Vietnam (IAS). In attendance were a total of 34 participants from the various sectors of the industry, and the meeting was chaired by Prof. Dr. Nguyen Van Tuat from the Vietnam Academy of Agricultural Sciences (VAAS).
Vietnam is one of the major producers of black pepper in the world. Vietnam’s pepper cultivation has increased rapidly in the past years, reaching 85,000 hectares by the end of 2015. The figure reached 100,000 hectares by the end of the first quarter of 2016, doubling the figure set by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s master zoning plan for the development of the pepper industry by 2020. In the first nine months of the year, Vietnam earned some 1.2 billion U.S. dollars from exports of nearly 145,500 tons of pepper, up 13.1% in value and 31.5% in volume year-on-year. Vietnam accounted for 32% of the world’s total pepper output and held more than 56% of world market share, according to the Vietnam Pepper Association (VPA). Vietnamese pepper products are exported to some 100 countries and regions, with Asia, Europe and the United States being the biggest markets.
Topics presented and discussed included: the situation of pepper production, processing and consumption in Vietnam by Dr. Đo Trung Binh, of IAS; pests on pepper and pest management by Dr. Ha Minh Thanh, Vice Director of the Plant Protection Research Institute (PPRI); and an overview of how plant clinics operate in Vietnam by Prof. Dr. Nguyen Van Tuat. The role of CABI in the implementation of Plantwise Project in Vietnam was shared by Dr. Sivapragasam and Dr. Chaudhary. CABI’s Mr. Sharbendu Banerjee also presented on the opportunities mobile technologies can in agriculture. Plantwise has been very successful in Vietnam and it was agreed that additional plant clinics, funded by the Vietnam Pepper Association, will be rolled out by April 2017.
To find out more about Plantwise in Vietnam, visit the country page on the Plantwise  website. To find out more about the pests and diseases affecting pepper production in Vietnam, visit the Plantwise Knowledge Bank.