It is better to take risks than to be afraid to change

“Vietnam's annual fruit and vegetable production capacity is 28 million tons; preliminary processing capacity of vegetables and fruits is about 30%", said Mr. Nguyen Quoc Toan, Director of the Department of Agricultural Products Processing and Market Development (MARD), opening the forum to promote linkages between production, processing and consumption. consume vegetables.

According to him, the congestion at the border gate in the past time and so far has not been completely solved. The story of road costs, maintenance costs has been reflected a lot. Therefore, the stage of processing, establishing a chain of links, and exporting through official channels is very important.

More specifically about the production capacity of each item, Mr. Le Thanh Tung - Deputy Director of the Department of Crop Production said that Vietnam's vegetable output is about 10 million tons/year. In which, output in the first quarter was concentrated in January, accounting for more than 60% of total output.

Some shippers are afraid to change, so they still accept the risk of sending goods by road for export to China (photo: Kien Trung)

According to calculations, if each person consumes about 10kg of vegetables/month, the excess vegetable output in the first quarter of 2022 will be about 2.5 million tons. This quantity will be put into processing. Particularly, the Central Highlands is the largest surplus area, with more than 900,000 tons.

Regarding fruit trees, dragon fruit has the highest output (1.4 million tons/year). Then there are more than 1 million tons of bananas, more than 800,000 tons of mangoes, and about 600,000 tons of durians.

In the first 3 months of the year, dragon fruit, jackfruit, pomelo, banana, mango... are the fruit trees under the greatest pressure of consumption. Mr. Tung said that after dragon fruit, jackfruit may need to support consumption.

In order to avoid falling into a state of "fire fighting" as in the past time, Mr. Tung said that it is necessary to forecast output, trace the origin, have a consumption plan, connect enterprises to associate production and promote processing technology. processing, especially deep processing.

Referring to the issue of exporting agricultural products, Mr. Tran Thanh Hai - Deputy Director of the Import-Export Department (Ministry of Industry and Trade) noted, whether by road, sea or rail, Vietnamese goods must meet meet the requirements from China on food safety, plant quarantine, traceability.

According to Mr. Hai, in order to effectively convert exports from land to sea, both farmers and businesses must change their production and sales mindset. Besides, you have to change customers and re-establish the sales network.

"In fact, many businesses have made good use of the sea route, but some shippers are afraid to change, so they still accept the risk of sending goods by road," he said.

Need a revolution in processing and exporting

In order to sustainably develop the fruit and vegetable value chain, avoiding the occasional crisis of "redundancy, falling prices", businesses believe that there is a need for a transformational revolution in processing and exporting agricultural products. Because at present, every stage has problems, the weakest of which is logistics and processing.

According to Mr. Nguyen Quoc Toan, standardization is the only way to cope with current difficulties and constraints. Experienced businesses in the market should stay connected and share experiences to bring Vietnamese vegetables and fruits further on the world stage.

The production capacity of vegetables and fruits is large, if the consumption mindset is not changed, the crisis of excess will recur (photo: BH)

Mr. Toan pointed out 6 main issues that need to be changed in the fruit and vegetable industry chain.

First , change the approach related to agricultural product processing because of the seasonal nature. This sets out the methods related to the management of the growing area as well as the quality and traceability requirements of the product. Each fruit needs a specific, detailed, complete and transparent "birth certificate".

Second , quality management from the root is the key factor. If this can be done, goods that are stuck in export can be immediately sent back to the processing plant.

Third, connect the consumption of agricultural products by many ways, towards creating an ecosystem of agricultural product consumption, right from the beginning of the planting season. Before each season, industry associations, manufacturers, logistics units, ... must sit down and put forward a clear strategy based on the digital platform.

Fourth , institutional reform related to processing. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has developed a processing scheme covering 13 areas, as well as a separate project for vegetables and fruits; publicly available to businesses.

Fifth , closely link units in the value chain, from farmers to local authorities.

Sixth , making agricultural product brands from the ground up, only then will it be sustainable and growing, and at the same time benefit from a series of new generation FTAs.

Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Tran Thanh Nam emphasized that in order to build a sustainable chain in the production, preservation and processing of products, it is necessary to have the participation of all stakeholders from businesses, cooperatives, etc. . to add value to products.

In addition to building export chains, localities and raw material regions need to pay great attention to building linkages to bring their products into processing factories.

To do this, it is first necessary to change in terms of thinking and perception in processing agricultural and forestry products. The ministry will study to issue appropriate policies to make consumption the most favorable, he said.