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More fruitful research sought for Vietnam
A lack of funds and a lack of foresight is holding back Vietnam’s fruit export sector, even though the nation is blessed with almost perfect fruit-growing conditions.
Scientists say research into new fruit varieties, which could generate much-needed export revenue, is underfunded. Farmers are also ignoring global fruit consumption trends when choosing which varieties to cultivate.
Vietnam earned US$245 million from fruit and vegetable exports in the first seven months of this year, down by 0.2 percent on the same period in 2008, Vietnam News Agency reported.
The country currently has 775,000 hectares of commercial fruit orchards, 40 percent of which is in northern Vietnam, according to Dr. Ngo Binh, deputy head of the Fruit and Vegetable Research Institute in northern Vietnam.
Home-grown fruit not only suits the taste of Vietnamese but also appeals to foreign palates, Nguyen Minh Chau, head of the Southern Fruit Research Institute, told Sai Gon Tiep Thi (Sai Gon Marketing) newspaper.
“A Malaysian fruit expert who used to work with us once paid hefty airport taxes to take some Vietnamese mangoes home,” Chau said. “He said the fruit was worth the cost of transporting it.”
But Vietnam is still lagging behind other fruit exporting countries, such as Thailand, which sell similar products at lower prices.
Thai durians are sold for US$1 a kilogram while those grown in Vietnam sell for VND40,000 ($2.24) a kilogram.
Vietnam has a number of well-known fruit varieties, such as the green-skinned pomelo and thick-fleshed, small-seed durian, but not enough of the fruits are grown to satisfy domestic demand, let alone export.
Chau said the industry was beset by a lack of market research and forward planning.
Binh said his institute, which cultivates 800 species of fruit, had spent 10 years creating 11 new species of orange, banana and lychee.
But fruit scientists didn’t have enough funding to continue their projects and the consensus is that innovation is required to win over international consumers.
“We can not just sell what we already have,” Tran The Tuc of the Center for Vegetables, Flowers and Fruit Science and Technology said. “Malaysia has durians and pineapples. But then they realized carambola (starfruit) could be a key product to help them enter European markets.”
“They started studying and promoting the fruit and Malaysian carambola is now widely popular not only in Europe but also around the world,” Tuc said.
Nguyen Mai Oanh of the Institute of Policy and Strategy for Agricultural and Rural Development said Vietnam’s fruit producers should have a long-term plan that takes international market trends into account.
Oanh is recognized as the creator of the sweet red-fleshed dragon fruit, which has a higher concentration of vitamin C than the traditional white-fleshed varieties.
Last month, Vietnam sent its first consignments of the red-fleshed fruit to the U.S., where white-fleshed dragon fruit has been on sale since late last year.
Vietnamese fruit and vegetables are sold to 20 markets around the world. Export turnover increased from $334 million in 2001 to $390 million last year.
The industry’s main competitors are Thailand, China and the U.S.
This year, the country has set a target of generating $400 to $500 million from fruit and vegetables exports.
Hong Nguyen
vietnews
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