Cash crops
Green fruit spikes of peppercorns dry on a mat. (Learn more)
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Black pepper, used in most of the cuisines of Europe and Asia, is made from the dried, unripe green berries of the Piper nigrum vine. The green berries are cooked briefly before drying to produce black peppercorns.
A valuable spice crop already traded from India to the Mediterranean during the time of the Egyptian pharaohs, peppercorns are one of Vietnam’s major cash crops. Vietnam is currently the largest producer and exporter of pepper in the world.
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Photographs by Margery Freeman · Text by Lorraine Aragon
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