A VIETNAMESE PEPPER GROWER ON PHU QUOC ISLAND INSPECTS HIS CROP, 1999-08-08 (photo)

(FOR RELEASE WITH BUSINESS FEATURE BC-VIETNAM-PEPPER) - Le Minh Mau, a Vietnamese black pepper grower on the southern island of Phu Quoc inspects his next pepper crop on his one hectare plantation. Small pepper plantations with their distinctive crowded, green chimney growths lined in close-knit grids, dot the 593 square kilometre island. In recent years Vietnam has emerged as an increasingly important source of world pepper and pepper exports from the communist-ruled country for the first six months this year soared to 23,800 tonnes, up 300 percent from the same period in 1998. Official statistics put black pepper export value in the period at $91 million, compared with $35 million the previous year. Photo taken July 23. AJS/PB/WS