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Bananas will be the key export farm produce?
In the plan to develop vegetable, fruits and ornamental trees by 2020 by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, banana has been chosen by many localities as the strategic plants.
According to Vu Manh Hai, Head of the Fruit and Vegetable Research Institute, banana is the plant which can bring high economic value. Vietnam is exporting big volumes of bananas to China every year. Hai said that banana could be considered the key farm produce in localities.
Even banana leaf, which is useless in Vietnam, could become the ‘speciality’ in the US. The US proves to be a potential market for Vietnam’s banana leaf with Viet Kieu (Overseas Vietnamese) being the main customers. The first and only Vietnamese company which is exporting banana leaf to the US is Thanh Hai Company in Nha Be district in HCM City, which has exported 20 tonnes of banana leaves so far to A&M Seafood.
Thanh Hai Company sent workers to Trang Bom district in Dong Nai province to collect banana leaves. After that, the company treats the leaves well by sterilizing them and packaging them for export to the US. A kilogramme of banana leaves is UScent 36 or 6,500 dong.
Lam Minh Thanh, Director of Thanh Hai Company, is the person who has the initiative to export banana leaves to the US. Returning from the trip to California,, where he saw many things originated from Taiwan and Thailand, Hai decided to start the plan to export banana leaves to the US.
Currently, Thanh Hai is exporting one container of banana leaves to the US a month.
Huong Hoa district in Quang Tri province reportedly exported 400 tonnes of bananas on Tet at 4.5 million dong per tonne on average. Tan Long commune, one of the 12 border communes of Huong Hoa district has become a banana growing commune which has 550 hectares of banana growing area. Tan Long’s bananas are being exported to China in large quantity.
There are now 1,400 hectares of banana growing area in Huong Hoa district. On average, farmers can earn 40-50 million dong a year per hectare from bananas. Every day, small merchants collect 50-60 tonnes of bananas for export to China or domestic consumption.
In 2009, farmers in Huong Hoa district earned 80 billion dong from selling bananas. Farmers in Lao Cai province also earned billions dong from bananas. Ban Lau commune alone, has 60 households growing 87 hectares of bananas, earning 10 billion dong.
Tran Thi Mai, a farmer, related that previously she grew water melon, but she has shifted to grow bananas because bananas can bring much more money.
VietNamNet, TBKTVN
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