Vietnam continues to be among the world's top pepper exporters, when the country exported 77,000 tons of pepper in the first seven months of this year, earning $532 million, a decrease of 69 percent in volume, but an increase of 17.1 percent in value year-on-year, reported the Vietnam General Statistics Office on Tuesday.

According to the Vietnam Pepper Association (VPA), the country is forecast to export between 110,000-115,000 tons of pepper in 2012, earning about $780 million, if the pepper price remains as high as those in July at more than $7,000 per ton.

Currently, wholesale pepper price at key pepper growing areas in Vietnam's Central Highlands and southeast region is between 123, 000-125,000 VND ($5.9-$7.2) per kilo, an increase of 18, 000-20,000 VND (80-90 cents) per kilo against the same period last year.

Over the past decade, Vietnam's pepper production has made strong growth. In 2001, VPA had only 34 member companies, which rose to 105 members as of May 2011.

During the 10-year period, the average pepper output increased from 3-5 tons per hectare to 9-10 tons/ha, compared with those in India and Indonesia with 0.2-0.3 ton/ha, or Malaysia and Brazil with 1-2 tons/ha.

Vietnam becomes the world's top pepper exporter, having products available in 80 countries and regions, including large markets like the EU, the United States, the Middle East and Asia, and accounting for 40-50 percent of the global export volume, said VPA.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), the country has about 50,000 hectares of land under pepper growing, accounting for 2.5 percent of the country's total 2 million hectares for the cultivation of five kinds of industrial plants. However, pepper export value makes up more than 8 percent of the total export value of those industrial plants, which is six times higher than tea, four times than rubber, 3.8 times than cashew and 2.6 times than coffee, reported VPA.

In 2011, Vietnam exported 123,808 tons of pepper, worth $732.21 million, a year-on-year increase of 5.9 percent in volume and 73.8 percent in value, accounting for 0.76 percent of the country's total commodity export value.

The country's big pepper importers include the United States, the U.A.E, Germany, Netherlands, India, Egypt, Pakistan, Spain, Britain and Russia.