Vietnam’s fruits and vegetables sector must actively increase competitiveness by raising quality and reducing prices after the country joined the WTO, local experts said.
According to Nguyen Van Thanh, director general of the Vietnam Fruit, Vegetables and Agricultural Products Corporation, Vietnam, with a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, has great potential for growth and export.
But the country will lose even its domestic market to foreign competitors if it does not raise quality and reduce price and have suitable development, he said.
At the moment, Vietnamese fruits and vegetables are higher priced than those from regional countries; for example, the price of Thai durian is US$1 per kilogram but Vietnamese durian is double that.
Other Vietnamese fruits such as mango and dragon fruit are even two or three times higher than those on sale in Thailand. Vietnamese fruits and vegetables find it difficult to compete with those from Thailand and China as the two countries have a lot of high-quality produce.
Due to small-scale production, shortage of materials, and weak management of pesticides, the quality of Vietnamese agriculture products is low. In the meantime, many countries in the world have applied strict food hygiene and safety regulations.
After joining the WTO, the country will implement its commitment to cut taxes for agriculture products, eliminate export subsidies, open the services market and allow wholly foreign-invested enterprises to engage in goods distribution.
On the other hand, due to lack of information and weak co-ordination between enterprises and farmers, goods are often sold passively at cheap prices.
Mai Quoc Thai, vice chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Farm Club said the city currently has 700 farms which provide a lot of goods and generate thousands of jobs for local people.
In recent years, the fruit and vegetables sector has actively invested in technology and new varieties to improve the quality of products and build development strategies. It has built and upgraded processing facilities in frozen fruit and vegetables factories with a combined capacity of 100,000 tons a year.
Dong Giao Food Export Company has a processing capacity of 19,000 tons a year but the distribution of its products is controlled by International Standards Organization ISO (2000) and Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP).
The company’s Deputy Director Trinh Khac Kiem said if Dong Giao fails to meet ISO and HACCP international standards, foreign companies will not buy its products.
However, as the country has now joined the WTO, the company is much more likely to reduce its production output and suffer losses due to high input costs. This is a complicated matter enterprises will have to solve in the near future.
The fruit and vegetable sector is planning to import new varieties with high quality and productivity, and focus on trademark promotion through domestic and international food and drink fairs. To help enterprises overcome difficulties, all localities should co-operate to ensure a stable supply of materials to them in the first place.
Vietnam exported $32 million worth of fruit and vegetable in the first month of 2007, up 40 per cent on year.
Vietnam’s fruit and vegetable export revenue from China amounted to $18 million, up 20 per cent against the same month last year, and accounting for 60 per cent of the country’s total.
Meanwhile, Customs House reports show Vietnam had to import more than $1.25 billion of fruits and vegetables in Jan of 2007, down 50 per cent from the same period of last year. (VOV)
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