Dish
Kampot pepper
Pepper grown in a defined zone of Kampot and Kep provinces, protected as a geographical indication.
Kampot pepper is pepper grown in a defined area of Kampot and Kep provinces in southern Cambodia, and sold as green, black, red and white peppercorns.[1] It is protected as a geographical indication, a label that only pepper from that area may carry, in Cambodia and in the European Union.[1][2]
The growing area
Under the geographical indication, the pepper comes from Kampong Trach, Dang Tong, Tuek Chhou and Chhuk districts and Kampot city in Kampot province, and from Kep city and Damnak Chang Aeur district in Kep province.[1] The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) ties the pepper's character to the weather, the coastal climate and the soils of the area, and describes its spice as mild, with fresh and complex aromas.[1] A National Public Radio report of 2020 credited a near-ideal mix of sea, soil and climate in Kampot for the pepper's aroma and price.[3]
History
FAO writes that Kampot pepper has been well known since the 13th century.[1] The Cambodia Daily wrote in 2009 that the trade was at its height in the early 1900s, when the region produced about 1,000 tons a year. Under the Khmer Rouge, many pepper farms were closed to make way for rice, and the skill of growing pepper was nearly lost. In 2009 about 150 farms in the province were growing some 20 tons a year.[4]
Geographical indication
The Kampot Pepper Promotion Association was founded in 2009 by the development groups GRET and CEDAC, with the support of the Ministry of Commerce and the French Development Agency.[1] That year growers were registering their farms and had drawn up a book of rules for the crop while they waited for a law on geographical indications.[4] With Kampong Speu palm sugar, Kampot pepper was one of the first two such products in Cambodia.[2] The sources date its Cambodian registration differently. A Ministry of Commerce paper of 2017 says the ministry registered it on April 2, 2010, and dates the law on geographical indications to January 20, 2014. FAO gives January 2014 for the registration.[2][1]
The European Union registered Kampot pepper on February 18, 2016.[2] Vietnam followed on December 28, 2016, and Thailand on March 17, 2017.[2]
Growth
FAO reported in 2022 that the land registered for the pepper had grown from 1 hectare (2.5 acres) in 2010 to 264 hectares (650 acres), all in Kampot and Kep. Output rose from about 20 tonnes a year in 2013 to about 100 tonnes a year from 2019. The association's members went from 118 producers in 2010 to 386, about four in five of them smallholders.[1] The price of black Kampot pepper rose from US$5.75 a kilogram in 2010 to US$10 in 2020, and red pepper from US$10 to US$25.[1] One of the larger farms, La Plantation, began planting in southern Kampot in about 2013 and harvested 25 tons in 2019, with 150 full-time workers and as many day laborers at harvest.[3]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, How global branding like GI ensures trade and local development: the case of Cambodia's Premium Kampot Pepper (September 1, 2022)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Lao Reasey, Ministry of Commerce of Cambodia, Branding strategies for origin-based products: Case of Kampot pepper, World Intellectual Property Organization symposium paper WIPO/GEO/YTY/17/12 (June 2017)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 The Cambodia Daily, National Public Radio, Cambodia's prized Kampot pepper, nearly wiped out by Khmer Rouge, makes a comeback (March 15, 2020)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 The Cambodia Daily, Bethany Lindsay, Kampot pepper farmers await labeling law (April 16, 2009)