The cooperative that pioneers the export of leafy vegetables

​(News Portal – Dong Nai) - For many years, Tan Yen Vegetable Cooperative in Gia Tan 3 commune, Thong Nhat district has exported many vegetables and fruits, such as: jute, sweet potato, okra, papaya... to different markets such as the Middle East and the United States. This is also one of the few cooperatives that export vegetables and leaves to many demanding markets, bringing huge amount of profits to the cooperative’s members. 

Ms. An Tu Anh introduces the Tan Yen Cooperative's jute growing area for export in Hung Thinh commune, Thong Nhat district. 

The cooperative is promoting investment in growing areas and exporting activities to earn foreign currencies from discarded leaves such as cassava leaves, papaya leaves, okra leaves... This is also a pioneer cooperative in building a agriculture supply chain following the closed VietGAP model from planting, preliminary processing, to exporting agricultural products.

Exporting unique vegetables and leaves

For about 10 years, the export of cassava leaves, okra leaves, papaya leaves... have appeared in some regions of Vietnam. These vegetables are all harvested for their tubers and fruits, so the leaves are thrown away.

Ms. An Tu Anh, Director of Tan Yen Vegetable Cooperative, said that years ago, she looked for ways to export vegetables and leaves that farmers threw away because they only harvested tubers or fruits. At first, the female director looked for cassava gardens that were preparing to harvest tubers and asked to harvest leaves at a very low cost. Some garden owners even gave it away for free because they were going to be thrown away at the end of the day. Cassava plants do not need pesticide because they are easy to grow, easy to survive, and have few pests. However, harvesting the leaves before harvesting the tubers does not yield much in term of leaves because only a few leaves at the top were used, and the labor cost was too high so it was not profitable.

But seeing the potential of exporting these items, Ms. An Tu Anh went to explore the export models in many provinces and cities across the country to learn about the harvesting methods, how to clean and process leaves... according to the requirements of target export markets. She has also experimented with exporting these kind of products many times.

Vegetable farmers struggled during the Covid-19 pandemic due to difficulties in finding output. Ms. An Tu Anh focused on promoting the export market of vegetables and leaves, which was previously mainly experimental. And she found a new opportunity when the number of orders from Middle Eastern countries importing cassava leaves, okra leaves, jute leaves, papaya leaves and fruits... increased dramatically compared to previous years.

Tan Yen Cooperative harvests cassava leaves for export in the growing area in Hung Thinh commune, Thong Nhat district 

Invest in specialized farming areas

Sharing the story of finding opportunities in the ocean of challenges, Ms. An Tu Anh said that the Covid-19 epidemic had left a huge impact on the world's economy, causing the export market of vegetables and fruits and many other agricultural products to decline. The consumption power of domestic market was also much weaker than before. However, the export of cheap, easy-to-preserve leaves such as cassava leaves, okra leaves, eggplant leaves, papaya leaves... was selling like hot cakes. Seizing the chance, the cooperative expanded investment in areas producing vegetables and leaves with export strengths.

For items such as cassava leaves, papaya leaves, jute leaves... the cooperative has received export orders for hundreds of tons per year to the Middle East market. In addition, the cooperative has signed a contract to export okra to the United States with an initial output of about 100 tons/year.

Ms. An Tu Anh shared that the cooperative was experimenting with growing cassava plants that can be harvested both tubers and leaves, and growing cassava specifically for harvesting its leaves. A cassava plant yields 1 batch of leaves and 1 batch of tubers each year, so the tuber yield is not greatly affected. The effectiveness of this model is that farmers can earn enough money from selling leaves to cover investment costs such as wages, seeds, fertilizers, and enjoy full profits when selling tubers. If farmers plant cassava specifically to harvest leaves, once they plant it, the farmers can harvest it for many years. Usually in the following year, the leaf yield is double that of the first year. In one year of growing cassava to harvest leaves, farmers can achieve a revenue of 100 million VND/hectare, much higher than just to harvesting tubers.

After successful trial runs, since the beginning of the year, the cooperative has expanded an additional 10 hectares for growing cassava leaves for export. In 2023, the demand for imported vegetables and leaves from Middle Eastern countries in particular and many other countries has increased. The cooperative wants to form specialized farming areas with a scale of hundreds of hectares growing cassava, vegetables, and other fruits to provide products for the export market. In the immediate future, the cooperative will prioritize cooperation with its members in the form of leasing land and assigning contracts to cooperative members. The cooperative will invest in seeds, fertilizers, provide technical guidance, and product consumption. Cooperative members are required to put in the effort to cultivate, manage, harvest then they will receive 50% of the profits.

Ms. An Tu Anh said that farmers believed they had to meet VietGAP and GlobalGAP standards to be qualified for export, but in reality, only the product sample need to be free of drug residues and restricted substances for the entire batch to meet export standards. Various types of vegetables and leaves that are the cooperative's export strength are plants that are easy to cultivate and have few pests, such as cassava, which only needs a layer of organic fertilizer before planting, as well as careful selecting disease-free cassava varieties. Especially, priority is given to using indigenous cassava varieties so there is almost no cost for medicine. ​