Fresh fruit packaging facilities for export need help to overcome challenges

​(News Portal – Dong Nai) - Recently, fresh fruit packaging facilities for export in the area have increased rapidly in number. Existing facilities also boldly invest in upgrading their infrastructure and expanding their scale of operations to meet the increasing standards of export markets, especially the Chinese market.

Banana packaging facility for export in Thanh Binh commune, Trang Bom district. 

Many packaging facilities are not eligible for licensing

According to the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, the entire province currently has 86 packaging facilities granted export codes to the Chinese market with a total area of nearly 264,000 m², total packaging capacity of 7,860 tons/day. Among them, there are 39 banana packing establishments, 10 durian packing establishments, 4 mango packing establishments, 31 establishments packing mixed agricultural products... But up to now, out of 86 packing establishments, only 14 of them are licensed.

Packaging facilities are still violating construction and land regulations. Specifically, in terms of compliance with land conditions, there are currently only 5 packaging facilities built on production and business land, the rest are built on rural, agricultural land and other uses, so the majority are operating without following regulations on construction, land, etc. Some packaging facilities operate seasonally, causes difficulties in review and management.

According the Provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, the scale, land area, and location of production and business activities for packaging facilities has not met the needs of businesses as well as development trends. Organizations and individuals involved in preliminary processing and processing operate according to the seasons, so they have not focused on investing in facilities, equipment as well as implementing procedures related to land, construction,…. 

Packaging and peeling durian for export in at a facility in Long Khanh city. 

It is necessary to coordinate to monitor, support and guide businesses to properly comply with regulations in the field of State management

Agricultural production activities, especially fresh fruit products, have formed specialized farming areas with large-scale production. It is necessary to attract businesses and packaging facilities to invest in large-scale warehouses and packaging facilities that meet the standards of export markets. It is also essential to create a favorable investment environment through planning, mechanisms and support policies to encourage businesses and people to invest to promote production and export of agricultural products.

Mr. Le Ngoc Tien, Vice Chairman of People's Committee of Trang Bom district, said that the district had more than 6 thousand hectares of bananas for export, so the need to invest in banana packing facilities is enormous. There are currently 32 packaging facilities in operation, concentrating in Song Thao and Thanh Binh communes. The locality is facing obstacles in management because these establishments mainly operate seasonally. These facilities are difficult to bring into industrial zones and clusters because of the specific characteristics of this activity, they need to be located right in the production area to reduce costs and losses.

Sharing the same opinion, a representative of Long Khanh City said that in 2023, durian exports were strong, purchasing facilities converted their functions to preliminary processing and packaging of exported fruits. Currently, the city has licensed 10 facilities, including 2 large-scale facilities. In particular, some large-scale operations also have problems with construction permits, so they have difficulty with production power sources. There are establishments that still have a large inventory of durian products, so they hope to have a policy to promptly remove obstacles and difficulties in investing in packaging and preliminary processing facilities because the output of fresh fruit in the city is very large. In addition, these businesses and fresh fruit packaging facilities are also consuming agricultural products from other localities inside and outside the province; at the same time, it makes a great contribution to creating jobs locally.