Pepper lures Viet farmers as coffee prices fluctuate

Hanoi

COFFEE farmer Bui Van Trong is planning to switch as much as 15 per cent of his five-acre farm to pepper after prices more than tripled in five years.

"When I have profit from it, I'll be less worried by wild fluctuations in the coffee market," said Mr Trong, 51, whose farm is in the central Dak Lak province bordering Cambodia.

Vietnam is the world's biggest producer of pepper as well as the largest supplier of robusta beans. As coffee swung from a bull to bear market in the past 14 months, more farmers planted p…