LONGHENG:Cambodian Farmers Enjoy Pepper Price in 2010

cambodian farmers enjoy pepper price


Cambodian farmers this year have enjoyed with pepper price that increased remarkably, forced some local farmers to grow pepper further and at the same time some farmers cut mango plantation turning to grow pepper after the pepper price increased.
Sok Meng Hun, a local pepper farmer in Da Village in Memot district of Kompong Cham province said on July 16 that the price of pepper product augmented this year. The pepper price is good recently,” he said, adding that one ton of pepper product here is worth about 3,000 US dollars and sometimes, it is more than this according to the quality of the pepper product.
“We here sold to middle dealers and they resold to Vietnam businesspeople because here is near Vietnam border, the trade is easier to do,” he told SEAW by phone from his plantation, adding that a hectare of land could gain about 5-7 tons of pepper product but it depended on the water use and ways of caring them to grow pepper plants. Some farmers here also sold retail with costing over 3 US dollar per a kilogram of pepper.
“We also faced with some insects that forced us to use some chemical and fertilizer for them to grow well,” he stresses. Some farmer here cut off their mango trees to plant pepper because it gain good price than mango. We hope next year the pepper price will increase more,” he said, adding that we planted 2-3 hectares only.
Ngoun Lay, head of Kompot Pepper Farmers’ association said that Kompot is a place producing pepper which was recognized by the international community and this pepper product in area sold well this year. “The middle dealers bought our pepper products to export to foreign markets like France, EU and US, and other,” he said, adding that in 2009, we gained 12 tons of pepper products. Farmers planted pepper at two main provinces; Kep and Kompot were listed for the geographic indicator (GI) status.
He added that one ton of black pepper is worth about 5,750 US dollars, and one ton of white pepper cost 12,250 US dollars and one ton of brown pepper for 1050 US dollars this year. And this price is only for Kompot pepper product that already listed in geographic indicator (GI) that strictly regulates every aspect of a product’s properties to assure both its high quality and regional distinctiveness and it also implemented with rules of world trade organization in protect of value of geographic area.
He said that in 2010, we collected 10 tons of Kompot pepper product and sold well this year. And we usually collected the pepper product in May. “After the price of pepper increased, the farmers also enjoyed growing pepper and they will expand more size of their land to grow pepper plantation,” he noted. Even though local farmers expressed dissatisfied with the pepper product, they gained less than their purpose.
“We are trying to get pepper product in Kompot province to 17 tons this year but unfortunately, we affected from drought and it affected to grow pepper and we do not have enough water and our pepper plants did not produce well,” he said, adding that we also have some work to do to choose seeds among qualified pepper to seek high quality. What is a unique for pepper product is aromatic and hot quality,” he said, adding that local farmers enjoyed to harvest their product when the pepper price rose year on year. “The pepper in Kompot province does not use chemical fertilizer for growing and grew it with depending on natural resources, and selected seeds, and well prepared poles for pepper plants to grow high,” he said, adding that The pepper products always get higher price than other pepper product in the country because its hot quality and aromatic pepper.
According to the history of buying pepper product from Cambodia, in 1930 almost all of the pepper consumed in France came from Indochina. Kampot pepper in particular was of exceptional quality and rapidly became ‘the spice of choice for French restaurants’. Global pepper production is slated to increase by 3 % in 2010, to 2,90,742 tons from 281,974 tons last year, said International Pepper Community (IPC) projection in its figure. IPC said that the consumption of producing nations is projected to be around 1, 10,000 annually. Pepper output in Vietnam, world’s leading producer of the spice, is expected to be around 90,000 tonne in 2010 from 100,000 tonne last year. “Some traders say that Vietnam also exports Cambodian pepper as its own,” IPC added. ###