SPECIAL SECTION: KIRKLAND SIGNATURE
COSTCO CONNECTION
You can find Kirkland Signature pepper, and a variety of other Kirkland Signature spices, in warehouses.
The road from Hue travels along Vietnam’ s coastal plain, past rice paddies and small lowland farms, through Dong Ha and Khe Sanh, then begins a long climb westward into the lush mountains along the Laotian border.
I am travelling today with buyers from Olam, a global food company, and Olde Thompson, a Californian company that manufactures Kirkland Signature spice products. We’ re headed to the Huong Hoa district, where a number of farming families have started planting pepper vines. Through a program supported by Costco and these suppliers, farmers in this district are hoping to become part of the thriving pepper supply chain in Vietnam, which is the world’ s largest producer of this everyday spice. Costco uses Vietnamese pepper for its Kirkland Signature pepper products.
The rich soil and seasonal rainfall here offer ideal conditions for pepper. Growing on flowering vines, pepper can be cultivated by small-scale farmers and can bring in higher prices than rice and other crops. But first a life-threatening obstacle has to be overcome: After all these years, this fertile land is still riddled with unexploded bombs, grenades, land mines and mortar shells from the war.
The heaviest bombing of the war took place here in Quang Tri province, on the southern border of the demilitarised zone that separated South and North Vietnam. Since the war ended, thousands of people have been killed or injured by stepping on unexploded ordnance in the area.
That’ s where PeaceTrees Vietnam( PTVN, Peacetreesvietnam. org), founded in 1995, enters the picture. PTVN’ s mission is to help rebuild Quang Tri’ s communities by clearing the land; building schools, libraries and community centres; and providing expertise to farmers to grow profitable new crops.
PTVN started working with farmers in this area in 2015, explains Ha Pham, a Vietnamese woman who serves as PTVN’ s in-country director. In response to the growing global demand for pepper, PTVN offered to teach these farmers the best methods for planting and growing pepper vines. Also, farmers who sign up to participate in the pepper program have their plots cleared by a specially trained explosive ordnance disposal( EOD) squad managed by PTVN.
Costco’ s role is to help secure market access for the local farmers. To date, 60 farmers have participated in this program, with the first pepper crops harvested in late 2018. The annual yields have been modest, and farmers have had the extra benefits of learning tangible agricultural and business skills through the program. >
COSTCO CONNECTION MAR / APR 2023 | 29