Vietnam’s peppercorn exports to Germany face various obstacles due to the ravages of COVID-19 in many countries across the globe, according to the Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency (Vietrade) under the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

A farmer in Dak Lak harvests peppercorn (Photo: VNA)

Vietnam’s peppercorn exports to Germany face various obstacles due to the ravages of COVID-19 in many countries across the globe, according to the Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency (Vietrade) under the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

The country’s competitiveness edge has been hard-hit by surging delivery costs.

Meanwhile, economic recovery in Germany results in rising demand for the spice, Vietrade noted, adding that peppercorn supply in the European market is entirely dependent on imports.

Germany imported 4,533 tonnes of peppercorn totalling 13.71 million EUR (16.16 million USD) from Vietnam in the first half of this year, a year-on-year decline of 21.9 percent in volume and 4.5 percent in value, data from the Directorate-General of the European Commission (Eurostat) showed.

The share of Vietnam’s peppercorn in the market fell to 31.82 percent in H1 from 36.34 percent recorded in the same period last year.

Given the fact that some small-scaled Vietnamese suppliers have yet to fulfil stringent requirements of the German side on pesticides and origin tracing, Vietrade advised the peppercorn sector to exert efforts to meet requirements on product quality and origin./.