In the Song Ray area of Dong Nai Province, southern Vietnam, more than 100 producers jointly operate an organic-pepper complex of about 200 ha and are moving to build a direct export route to Europe. The local paper Dan Viet reported this on June 23, 2026. Combining automatic irrigation, a system that uses nets to collect fallen pepper berries, and biological pest control that does not rely on chemical pesticides, they aim to meet European quality standards without using chemical fertilizers or synthetic pesticides. For Japanese spice makers and raw-material buyers who source pepper, this is not merely news about one overseas region. With residual-pesticide regulations tightening year by year, it is a story that bears on sourcing design itself\u2014where to pull \"organic pepper that meets the standards\" from.<\/p>\n
According to the report, Song Ray's total pepper-growing area is about 800 ha. Of this, 200 ha is designated as a certified organic model zone, with over 100 households participating. Worth noting is that rather than the conventional form in which individual farmers grow as each sees fit, they are building a \"complex\" that aligns standards across an area. Only by unifying cultivation methods and bundling traceability can they meet the volume and lot uniformity that overseas buyers demand. It is a picture of an aggregation of small farmers seeking to face the European market as a consolidated supply unit.<\/p>\n
Dong Nai Province sits in southeastern Vietnam and has long been known as a major pepper region. And looking at the country as a whole, Vietnam is the world's largest pepper exporter. According to industry materials, the 2025 export volume was about 247,000 tonnes, said to account for around half of the world's pepper exports. On a production basis it is on the scale of about 195,000 tonnes, in the 30-percent range of world supply. The export share exceeds the production share because Vietnam also imports and re-exports a large volume of pepper from other countries. In any case, it is a one-strong structure that leaves India, Brazil, and Indonesia far behind.<\/p>\n
In other words, a considerable share of the pepper on the world's tables is originally Vietnamese or has passed through Vietnam. This Song Ray organic complex can be positioned as one example of the move to shift from this \"holding the world by volume\" stage to a \"capturing unit prices through quality and certification\" stage.<\/p>\n
What the European market demands of pepper is, first, safety regarding pesticide residues and microorganisms. The EU sets residual-pesticide limits (MRLs) for food in fine detail by item, and lots that exceed the limits are stopped at customs. Organic cultivation that does not use chemical pesticides is a means of raising the certainty of \"not being rejected at inspection.\" In Song Ray, they aim to clear this wall through biological pest control (pest and disease countermeasures using natural enemies and microbial materials) and soil-building that does not use synthetic fertilizers.<\/p>\n
Automatic irrigation and net collection also have practical benefits. Automating irrigation holds down water use and workload, and catching pepper berries that fall to the ground in nets allows collection without touching the soil, reducing contamination by stray microbes. The report says this net collection can cut labor costs on the order of tens of millions of dong and can also ease the labor shortage during harvest. It is a field-level ingenuity that tightens safety and cost at the same time.<\/p>\n
Lining up the figures that can be confirmed makes the picture clear.<\/p>\n
Of the 800 ha, organic is 200 ha, still a quarter of the whole. Put the other way, certified organic pepper is scarce even within the region, leaving room for a price premium here. Among the main destinations for Vietnamese pepper, Germany ranks alongside the US and India, and Europe is already a major customer. The aim of stepping into that Europe with the added value of \"organic\" is consistent with the market's reality.<\/p>\n
The original article does not foreground individual remarks, but organizing the on-the-ground points from the reported moves, in paraphrase, it reads roughly as follows.<\/p>\n
From the standpoint of one producer, there is a sense that small innovations like net collection visibly lower labor costs and also raise harvest quality. It is the practical benefit of a safety measure that simultaneously lightens the management burden.<\/p>\n
From the side bundling the complex, a recognition comes through that only by aligning standards across an area can they meet overseas quality demands. It is the idea of capturing, through aggregation, the unit prices and trust that scattered small farmers cannot reach.<\/p>\n
For the region as a whole, there is a sense of crisis in the background that, in a phase of softening prices, merely \"selling volume\" is exhausting. It is a trend of seeking a way out in Europe, a market where unit prices can be captured, through differentiation via organic and certification.<\/p>\n
From here is the main point for Japanese food makers and spice buyers. We consider it from three angles.<\/p>\n
First, organic pepper as preparation for residual-pesticide regulations.<\/strong> Japan too has a positive-list system for pesticide residues under the Food Sanitation Act, and if an import inspection finds a limit exceeded, that lot becomes unusable. EU MRLs and organic certification are each distinct from Japan's residue standards, Organic JAS, and sterilization requirements, and European compliance does not directly translate into an advantage for Japan. However, cultivation management that does not rely on chemical pesticides itself tends to work in the direction of lowering residue risk for Japan as well. A \"region that has prepared its quality for Europe\" becomes a candidate worth considering for Japanese buyers too, on the premise of individually confirming the necessary certifications and inspections.<\/p>\n Second, viewing it on two fronts: sourcing for Europe and sourcing for Japan.<\/strong> When a Vietnamese region raises its quality with Europe in mind, raw material at that level also comes around to Japan. The structure of Europe first toughening a region with strict standards has occurred with coffee and cacao too. If Japanese makers observe Europe's sourcing standards as a \"leading indicator\" and prepare their own specifications ahead of time, they can avoid scrambling to catch up later.<\/p>\n Third, the idea of building traceability into the contract.<\/strong> A complexed region has the strength of being able to present, in bundled form, who harvested in which plot and with what pest control. This suits sourcing contracts \"with region certification and cultivation history.\" When planning private-brand pepper or products touting organic or additive-free status, whether history can be obtained at the raw-material stage also matters as a basis for labeling. We have entered an era of choosing suppliers not only by price but by the ease of obtaining history.<\/p>\n Pepper has a large trade volume among the many spices, and in a phase of falling prices, \"how to differentiate and maintain unit prices\" becomes a challenge common to regions. If moves to complex small farmers and steer toward organic and certification, as in Song Ray, spread in various places, Vietnamese pepper could see its axis of evaluation shift from \"cheap mass supply\" to \"a raw material chosen for its standards and history.\"<\/p>\n This is not limited to pepper. For many processed agricultural products flowing from Vietnam to Japan\u2014dried vegetables, herbs, fruit-processing ingredients, and the like\u2014the same \"complexing + certification + traceability\" template can be applied. If the supply side holds a system that guarantees quality across an area, the Japanese side too can source more easily as consolidated standard goods rather than a patchwork of small lots. Structural change in a region increases the sourcing options themselves.<\/p>\n If you look at certified organic Vietnamese pepper as a sourcing candidate, the practical points to confirm are roughly these. Which certification (EU Organic, Organic JAS, etc.) it has obtained. Whether it can produce residual-pesticide inspection reports on a per-lot basis. How far back cultivation history and plot information can be traced. Whether supply volume and lot stability are guaranteed across the whole complex. These are information that should, by rights, already be in place, given that the region touts having \"prepared for Europe.\" Confirming them concretely at the early stage of negotiations makes it easier to avoid stumbling later on labeling and quality assurance.<\/p>\n The Song Ray organic-pepper complex in Dong Nai Province is a move that symbolizes a phase in which Vietnam, the world's largest pepper exporter, steers \"from volume to quality.\" Over 100 households and about 200 ha are aligned across an area, aiming to meet European standards through automatic irrigation, net collection, and biological pest control. For Japanese makers and buyers, it is rich in implications on three counts: preparing for residual-pesticide regulations, bringing specifications forward using European standards as a leading indicator, and sourcing with history. It is worth holding now a perspective of choosing raw materials not just by low price but by certification and history.<\/p>\n Vietnam is the world's largest pepper exporter. Industry materials put the 2025 export volume at about 247,000 tonnes, said to account for around half of the world's pepper exports. In production too it holds the 30-percent range of world supply, leaving India, Brazil, and Indonesia far behind (because it includes import-re-export volumes, the export share exceeds the production share).<\/p>\n Europe sets residual-pesticide limits (MRLs) for pepper in fine detail by item, and lots exceeding the limits are stopped at customs. Organic cultivation that does not use chemical pesticides raises the certainty of being less likely to be rejected at this inspection, making it easier to meet the quality requirements for the European market.<\/p>\n Cultivation management that does not rely on chemical pesticides works to lower residue risk for Japan too, and the merit of a complexed region is that traceability is easy to build into contracts. However, EU Organic, Organic JAS, and each country's MRLs need to be confirmed separately. Preparing your own specifications ahead of time using Europe's sourcing standards as a leading indicator keeps you from falling behind.<\/p>\n [Reference source] In Son Ray, Dong Nai province, Vietnam, more than 100 households operate an organic-pepper estate of about 200 hectares. We interpret the move to target European exports through automatic irrigation, net collection, and biological pest control, and its implications for Japanese raw-material buyers.<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","categories":[92,104],"tags":[],"crop_category":[],"class_list":["post-1257","industry_news","type-industry_news","status-publish","hentry","category-industrial-crops","category-organic-farming-cat"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vietnam-agri.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/industry_news\/1257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vietnam-agri.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/industry_news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vietnam-agri.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/industry_news"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vietnam-agri.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vietnam-agri.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vietnam-agri.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1257"},{"taxonomy":"crop_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vietnam-agri.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/crop_category?post=1257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Ripple effects on the industry<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Practical points to keep in mind<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Summary<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Frequently asked questions<\/h2>\n
Where does Vietnam stand in the world pepper share?<\/h3>\n
Why does going organic favor exports to Europe?<\/h3>\n
What implications can Japanese food makers draw from this move?<\/h3>\n
Related Articles<\/h2>\n
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\n– Th\u1ee7 ph\u1ee7 ti\u00eau c\u1ee7a TP.\u0110\u1ed3ng Nai x\u00e2y d\u1ef1ng c\u00e1nh \u0111\u1ed3ng tr\u1ed3ng ti\u00eau m\u1eabu l\u1edbn, m\u1edf \u0111\u01b0\u1eddng xu\u1ea5t kh\u1ea9u sang ch\u00e2u \u00c2u\uff08D\u00e2n Vi\u1ec7t, 2026-06-23\uff09<\/a>
\n– Vietnam Black Pepper Industry: Global Supply & Trade Trends 2025\uff08Food Additives Asia\uff09<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"