Lam San agricultural cooperative in Cam My district, the southern province of Dong Nai, has exported over 500 tonnes of safe and organic peppercorns to Europe since early this year.

Illustrative image (Photo: VNA)

Director of the cooperative Nguyen Ngoc Luan said the cooperative will bring more than 1,000 tonnes of clean pepper to Europe this year. 

Earlier in October 2018, the Germany-based CERES - Certification of Environmental Standards granted a certificate to the cooperative recognizing its 3.5ha of peppercorn plant as organic, raising the total of its organic peppercorn plant cultivation to more than 10ha. 

Since 2012, the cooperative has grown organic peppercorn plants meeting GlobalGAP standards. 

In 2015, it shipped around 200 tonnes of peppercorns to Europe. Later in 2018, upwards 1,000 tonnes were shipped to several European countries such as Germany and the Netherlands while around 1,500 tonnes were sold domestically. 

Luan said safe peppercorns are sold at prices 7-10 percent higher than normal one at home while internationally-certified and organic peppercorns fetch 70 – 80 percent more than conventional products. 

The cooperative has linked with 1,500 households and formed groups to grow over 1,000 ha of clean peppercorn plants for export. 

Farmers joining the cooperative’s production chain will have their products sold at market prices and enjoy additional 10,000 VND (0.43 USD) in bonus per kg.