Vietnam pocketed $618 millionafter exporting 94,000 tons of pepper in the first seven months of this year, retaining the world's largest pepper exporter, reported the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) on its website on Sunday.

Specifically, the country shipped approximately 12,000 tons of pepper abroad in July, earning $81 million.

However, the average export price of pepper in the past seven months witnessed a year-on-year decrease of over 4 percent to 6, 563 US dollars per ton, said the ministry.

During the reviewed period, the United States and Germany were Vietnam's largest pepper importers, making up about 33.2 percent of the country's total market share.

At present, Vietnam exports pepper to more than 80 countries and territories around the world.

The Vietnam Pepper Association (VPA) predicted that local farmers would harvest 90,000-95,000 tons of pepper cultivated on 60,000 hectares of land by the end of this year.

The association has set a target to export 105,000-110,000 tons of pepper in 2013.