The Vietnam Pepper Association (VPA) said although the price of exported pepper slightly fell over the weekend, it remained at around US$2,750-2,800 per tonne.

The 2008 pepper crop has produced 90,000 tonnes and Vietnam plans to export about 80,000 tonnes of pepper by the end of this year.

The 36^th annual conference on pepper organised by the International Pepper Community (IPC), will take place in Ho Chi Minh City next November.

Vietnam joined IPC in 2005. At present Vietnam’s pepper output accounts for 30 percent of global production and 50 percent of the world’s export market share.