In neighbouring districts, many farmers destroyed their pepper fields to grow other kinds of trees, but pepper growers in Chu Se district, the Central Highlands province of Gia Lai, have made a fortune. Chu Se has over 300 farmer billionaires.
It is difficult to describe Hoa An village in Chu Se district because it is a rural village with 135 farmer families, but local farmers live in modern houses and drive cars. However, the richest and most famous farmer in this village is Nguyen Van Khoa.
This farmer owned 20ha of pepper fields. After giving some of the land to his children, this old man currently has 7.5ha of pepper. Last session, it is said that he earned profit of VND4 billion (US$250,000). This year, though the price fell, he still earned VND3 billion. Some say he has several tens of billion VND (over $1 million). Nobody really knows how much money Khoa has but around 20 years ago he spent a billion VND to build his house.
However, Khoa had to work very hard to own his current assets. He was the first man to grow pepper in Chu Se district. After several failed crops, in 1994 pepper prices suddenly soared. At that time, local farmers began growing pepper again because they had chopped pepper trees down in previous years when prices fell. Only Khoa still kept pepper fields and earned high profit.
Based on Khoa’s experience, Hoa An village’s farmers understood that it was suicide if they didn’t have their own policy in plantation and they decided to bind their lives with pepper. From Nhon Hoa, the pepper planting movement spread to the whole of Nhon Hoa commune. Nhon Hoa presently has around 300ha of pepper.
In Nhon Hoa commune, Chu Se district, there are 20 families with annual incomes of VND1 billion ($62,000) upwards, around 50 households with VND500 million ($31,000) upwards, and hundreds of families earning several hundreds of million VND a year. To demonstrate their wealth, many local farmers are driving luxurious cars, including several that are priced at nearly VND1 billion.
That’s the number of VND billionaires in Nhon Hoa commune. The total number for Chu Se district is over 300. All of them are pepper growers and many of them are ethnic minority people. If the pepper price remains stable, Chu Se may have many more billionaires in the future.
Though the pepper season this year is not very good, Chu Se district will harvest around 15,000 tonnes, worth around VND750 billion ($46.8 million).
How will this great sum of money be spent?
It is very risky to grow pepper so experienced growers in Chu Se are prudent. Many farmers have bought real estate in Da Nang, HCM City or hoarded money or gold. However, many others still think as farmers so they are purse-proud. They try to build big houses and buy cars, though they only drive cars around the village roads, not re-invest in pepper. The youth is falling prey to alcohol.
How can Chu Se develop in a sustainable way and have both economic and cultural development? It is still a burning question for not only Chu Se but every part of the countryside in Vietnam.
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