In the past few years, many Vietnamese enterprises have managed to export fruits to demanding markets like Japan, the United States, South Korea, New Zealand and Europe. But, very few Vietnamese companies can create a brand name for Vietnamese fruits the way the Fruit Republic Company of the Netherlands named exported Nam Roi grapefruit "wildness”.
According to the Plant Protection Department, as of mid-2012, Vietnam had three kinds of export fruits, including dragon fruit, rambutan and mango, qualified to be imported by demanding markets such as Japan, the United States, South Korea and New Zealand.
Laxity
Nguyen Thi Hong Thu, Director of Chanh Thu Fruit Import and Export Co., Ltd (located in Cho Lach district, Ben Tre province), a leading exporter of rambutan to the United States, asserts that a company must spend great efforts and money getting into foreign markets.
She said it must first of all choose a centralised rambutan farming zone and then work with cooperatives to disseminate GAP practices to all farmers. It must have clean production processes, have farming zones and packaging facilities granted codes by US plant quarantine authority, and have rambutan irradiated to ensure they are disease free before being exported to the US.
By doing so, Vietnamese rambutans exported by Chanh Thu have clear origin and name in the US where export prices are US$9 - 10 per kilo, about four times higher than in China. Higher commercial values are easily seen, but very few companies have invested.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has identified 11 fruit species, mainly in the Mekong Delta, capable of competing with foreign rivals in world markets. But farmers are still practising old farming practices, typical of scattered cultivation. It is very hard for a company to collect 5 - 10 containers of quality fruit.
Exporters generally do not like to collect fruit at orchards. However, this is not an option for going a long distance ahead.
"Cooperation bears fruits"
On July 26, Dr Nguyen Huu Dat, Director of Post Import Quarantine Centre under the Plant Protection Department, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, said Japanese authorities are considering granting licences for a second hot steam processing facility to a company in Vietnam. After being treated with hot steam, Vietnamese dragon fruits are eligible for export to Japan.
Being directly in charge of working with foreign partners to obtain passports for Vietnamese fruits, Dr Dat asserted that it is impossible to build a brand name or value of fruits with smallholding manufacturing foundation. "After many years of hard work, up to 2,000 ha of dragon fruit, 100 ha of rambutan, and more than 30 ha of mango receive export codes for qualified farming zones. The cooperative totally stands for legal entity, not individual member households,” he added.
Cooperatives with their member farming households will supply enough fruits for export processing. The process of building a brand name and raising value must also originate from this linkage.
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