Standardizing raw material areas
Mr. Tran Van Chien - Director of Truong Khuong A Fruit Garden Cooperative (Can Tho City) - shared that currently, the cooperative's key products such as Lo Ren star apple and pink avocado star apple have both met 4-star OCOP standards, helping to expand exports and increase value. However, the cooperative is facing a big challenge: the aging star apple tree, causing the output to decrease significantly, from 300 - 350 tons/year to about 200 - 220 tons/year.
Faced with this reality, Mr. Chien acknowledged that the merger of administrative boundaries will help the raw material area be expanded to Hau Giang and Soc Trang (formerly), creating conditions for sustainable OCOP development. This is also an opportunity for cooperatives to exchange and share experiences with each other, contributing to improving the quality of agricultural products and standardizing raw material areas according to market requirements.
Mr. Dang Thanh Tam - Member of Trang Ti Garden Cooperative (Can Tho City) - said that since being associated with export consumption enterprises, the value of longan has been increasingly enhanced and bringing stable income to farmers. Accordingly, when merging, with a larger production scale and synchronously standardized quality, Mr. Tam believes that this will be a great advantage in ensuring stable output and better prices for products in the future.
Mr. Nguyen Dinh Muoi - Deputy General Director of Vina T&T Group - said that the great advantage of Can Po City after the merger and arrangement of administrative units is the expansion of growing areas with increasingly improved product quality. This not only helps businesses confidently purchase and consume for partners around the world, but also encourages the company to proactively develop new markets to increase export output.
With that goal, the enterprise is orienting to link up and support cooperatives in Can Tho City in making GlobalGAP certifications for many types of agricultural products.
Forming typical agricultural products with brands
According to the Department of Agriculture and Environment (DONRE) of Can Tho City, the city has now built key fruit growing areas. Branded products have been formed with concentrated raw material areas covering an area of over 40,000 hectares, reaching an output of nearly 500,000 tons. This includes key crops such as Ha Chau Phong Dien mulberry, durian, Hoa Loc river sand mango, longan, star apple, pineapple ( pineapple) ...
In order to improve the value chain in agriculture, the city's Department of Agriculture and Rural Development has oriented many solutions that need to be implemented synchronously. Accordingly, in the direction and organization of fruit tree production, it is necessary to focus on the orientation of scale and location; minimize spontaneous development; do not spontaneously convert other valuable crops to new planting.
The traceability of fruit tree products does not stop at plant quarantine or food safety but must aim for quality; unify a database on growing areas and fruit tree packaging facilities nationwide.
In particular, it is necessary to strengthen the guidance on registering geographical indications and brands of Vietnamese fruit trees in key export markets such as China, the United States, the EU, ASEAN, Korea, Japan, etc. Completing legal mechanisms and policies in supporting and encouraging businesses to invest in infrastructure, processing, processing, preservation, and large-scale cold storage areas according to State policies.
