The Mekong Delta is the biggest fruit tree farming area in Vietnam, boasting various famous fruit specialities. The area under fruit trees in the delta reaches over 273,000 hectares, accounting for over 36.5 per cent of the whole country’s fruit tree farming area, and producing around 2.3 million tonnes of fruit. However, there are still shortcomings in production, collection, preservation and selling of fruit and fruit specialities in the region. It is a necessary to plan the development of fruit specialities to tap advantages and overcome shortcomings for sustainability of fruit trees in the Mekong delta when Vietnam is preparing for integration into the regional and world economies.
Great potentialThe Agricultural Planning and Design Institute, under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, has planned the development of the Mekong delta’s fruit specialities in some cities and provinces, including Tien Giang, Ben Tre, Dong Thap, Vinh Long, Tra Vinh, Hau Giang, Soc Trang and Can Tho. Such fruit specialities as Nam Roi grapefruit, Da Xanh (green skinned) grapefruit, king orange, Hoa Loc mango, durian, mangosteen, Lo Ren star fruit and green dragon fruit. According to statistics of a recent survey, total area under fruit trees in these localities is put at 55,000 hectares, producing an output of 360,000 tonnes in 2005, which were priced at over VND 2.3 billion. The demand for fruit specialities is huge despite their high prices. At the same time, thanks to climatic and land conditions, plus production experience of farmers and the scientific and technological application, fruit products in the Mekong delta have high quality. In particular, some products have been granted trademark protection certificates.
Having earned local farmers high economic value, the farming of fruit specialities has been encouraged in localities in the Mekong delta to expand the material supply area.
A report on the planning for agricultural production restructuring in the Mekong delta throughout 2010 and the 2020 vision states that total fruit tree farming area of the region, except pineapple, will be 305,429 hectares. Eight provinces and cities in the planned fruit farming area will develop 266,429 hectares of fruit specialities, accounting for 25 per cent of area and 17.5 per cent of output in the Mekong delta.
Accordingly, the provinces and cities of Vinh Long, Ben Tre, Tien Giang, Dong Thap, Tra Vinh, Hau Giang and Can Tho will develop the farming of local fruit specialities. The top target of the work is to gain high income on an area unit, meeting the demand of the lcoal market and gradually expanding export markets. According to calculation throughout 2010, total output of fruit specialities will reach around 600,000 tonnes, earning VND 4,000 billion in product value, or an average value of VND 82.58 million per hectare per annum.
Analysis on markets of the Mekong delta’s fruit market by the Agricultural Planning and Design Institute shows that the supply of the Mekong delta fruit has not met the demand yet. The region’s products have strongly sold in urban areas, where residents earn high incomes. Therefore, the areas will continue to be potential of the products in the coming time. Regarding export markets, so far, 29 countries and territories have imported Vietnamese fruit and China is the biggest importer, accounting for 50 per cent. Export market potential for Vietnamese fruit throughout 2010 remains huge with China still being a promising market.
Overcoming difficulties and challengesApart from advantages, the implementation of plans on the development of fruit specialities in the Mekong delta still witnesses difficulties and challenges. At first, localities still develop small-scaled fruit tree farming areas and farm various species of fruit at the same time. The survey results show that fruit farming area of local farmers is between 0.3 hectares and 2.5 hectares per household. To guide local farmers to follow plans on developing specialised areas for farming fruit specialities, Dr Nguyen Minh Chau, director of the Southern Fruit Research Institute, said that it was necessary to set up national and provincial steering boards. He said that if the task was localities only, it would be very difficult as localities were not strong enough to provide guidelines and operation. The development of plans is necessary but should be clear. Also, there should be mechanisms and policies to help local farmers, so they can implement the State’s plans.
Another difficulty is that poor quality seedlings of fruit specialities are still sold in a widespread manner. Total volume of seedlings produced by seven provinces and Can Tho city is put at between 26 and 27 million each year. However, only around 14 and 15 per cent of the figure have high quality. The figure for fruit specialities is between 24 and 25 per cent. Ben Tre province alone, the biggest seedling production area in Vietnam with 5,000 production establishments, each year produces between 16 million and 18 million seedlings but only 11 establishments have been recognised as ‘green’ addresses and only 5.5 per cent of seedlings have high quality. The reason is that seedlings are produced without supervision, examination and management. This has produced a negative impact on the quality of fruit specialities.
At the same time, the output of fruit specialities in the Mekong delta remains low, yet to meet orders for export while prices are too high in the domestic market. Therefore, when Vietnam joins the World Trade Organisation (WTO), if the Mekong delta does not improve their production of fruit, it will be difficult for the region’s products to compete against products of the same kind from Thailand, especially durian, mangosteen and mango. Dr Vo Mai, chairman of the Vietnam Fruit Association, said that during international integration Vietnamese producers should pay further attention to sample, quality, safety and prices of their products. The Mekong delta’s fruit products do not lack markets but lack volume of goods to meet orders for export. Therefore, it is necessary to develop concentrated material supply areas and the collective economy, thus improving the quality and quantity of Vietnamese fruit products. At present, Ben Tre province has become the first locality to develop a project on farming 4,000 hectares of Da Xanh grapefruit throughout 2010. The project aims to develop the production of grapefruit in accordance to the GAP standard to meet the demand of the local and foreign markets.
Dr Hoang Quoc Tuan from the branch of the Agricultural Planning and Design Institute, said that to successfully implement plans on developing fruit speciality farming areas in the Mekong delta throughout 2010, the top task is to promote co-operation and alliance in production, collection and processing, increasing the scale of production of fruit specialities in co-operatives and enterprises and developing relation between producers and enterprises. Also, scientific and technological application should be applied to production, preservation and processing of fruit specialities. Authorised agencies should issue policies on encouraging the development of fruit specialities in the Mekong delta with priorities in tax, land, human resources development and capital. To develop fruit specialities in the Mekong delta and to tap advantages for developing a commodity-bade production, capable of competing in the local and foreign markets are objective requirements. However, there are still difficulties and shortcomings in production, collection, preservation, and selling of fruit, in particular specialities. Only with appropriate knowledge and involvement of authorised agencies, enterprises and local farmers, would the plans on developing fruit specialities end in a great success.
Huong Thao
Vietnamese
