According to the Vietnam Pepper Association (VPA), Vietnam has earned US$25.9 million from exporting 7,921 tonnes of pepper of all kinds since early this month.

The six-month pepper export volume is estimated to have reached more than 70,000 tonnes with an export revenue of US$218 million.

The International Pepper Community (IPC) has predicted that Vietnam’s pepper output this year would reach 90,000 tonnes but its export volume would be more than 100,000 tonnes, respectively this year.

The General Department of Customs said that Vietnam’s pepper exports over the past five months, rose strongly in volume and value compared to the same period last year.

The US imported 8,300 tonnes of pepper worth US$27 million, an increase of 91.3 percent in quantity and nearly 2.1 times in value.

The second placed importer was Germany, which purchased 8,200 tonnes worth US$26 million, an increase of nearly 2.5 times in value and 91 percent in volume.

It is worth noting that pepper exports to these two major markets over the past five months made up nearly 28 percent of the country’s total pepper export volume while the figure was just 17 percent in the first five months of 2008 and 16 percent in the same period of 2009.

The three other markets which has recorded pepper import earnings of more than US$12 million are India (with 4,400 tonnes), the United Arab Emirates (4,200 tonnes) and the Netherlands (3,700 tonnes).