Build up agricultural product brand: learn experience from Cooperatives

Suoi Lon mangos export creates stable markets

    Dong Nai possesses many conditions to grow many special fruits such as mango, grapefruit, mandarin orange, rambutan, durian, etc. Several kinds of fruit in the province are cultivated in a concentrated areas and their high quality can meet the high commercial standards for domestic consumption and export. However, as the fruit production is just at a small scale without commercial brand, a lot of fruits fail to sell at supermarkets and for export. Until now, Dong Nai has only 3 agricultural produces obtaining Gap credits such as Suoi Lon mango (Xuan Hung commune, Xuan Loc district); Trang Dai vegetable (Trang Dai ward, Bien Hoa city); Tan Trieu pomelo (Tan Binh commune, Vinh Cuu district). To allow agricultural products to be sold at supermarket or for export, farmers should manage to achieve certain certificates of origin, hygiene and safety. Then, Gap (good agricultural practices) is considered as the passport for agricultural products to enter into these strict markets.

Truong An vegetable cooperative is aiming to obtain VietGap standard.

     Mr. Nguyen The Bao, head of Suoi Lon mango Cooperative (Xuan Hung commune, Xuan Loc district) – the first unit obtaining VietGap – said that “When Suoi Lon mango had no commercial brand, it remained unpopular to people, which led to many difficulties in consumption. After gaining the certificate VietGap, Suoi Lon mango becomes popular in the market and can meet requirements about quantity, quality and various kinds. At present, Suoi Lon mango has been exported into China with higher price and stable market”. Meanwhile, obtaining GAP standards is not that easy and the planting is still very simple and dispersive, planters should observe strict requirements about planting and caring techniques. Farmers also have to invest billions into factory, production facility and inspection unit employment cost (only receive the certificate when passing the inspection). Mr. Vo Van Vuong, head of Truong An vegetable (Xuan Phu commune, Xuan Loc district) shared: “In early days of founding the cooperative, farmers didn’t believe that the cooperative could succeed in sending Truong An vegetable into the market. However, there are now 18 members and they consent to expand a 14.5- ha area of vegetable production, including about 8 hectares of clean vegetable. In terms of vegetable, to gain VietGap certificate, farmers need a fairly enormous investment into facilities to do preliminary processing, net house, synchronous irrigation system, automatic watering tool and micro-organic fertilizer, etc. Besides, farmers have to control the production cost so that their products can have the competitive price compared to other similar products”.

Packing process for grapefruit export at Tan Trieu Grapefruit Cooperative

    To meet export demands, agricultural products need to abide by requirements about package, type, food hygiene and safety and are able to supply in large quantity. The problem is that most of products are produced at a small scale. Mr. Phan Tan Tai, head of the cooperative for Tan Thanh grapefruit agriculture and service (a new certified product from VietGap – GlobatGap), told: “when we decided to produce agricultural products, the best method is to arrange the production in a form of farm, cooperative. Then, farmers will soon realize the important cooperation so that the products are produced to meet large demands and export requirements.

    Certainly, agricultural product brand building is not the simple execution in terms of the production conditions nationwide. But it can help farmers to end the repeated worry called “good crop but low price”. This can contribute to raise the competition capability in the domestic and exporting markets.

    According to the program of key plant development and agricultural product branding in the province from 2011 to 2015 proposed by Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, by 2015, Dong Nai is striving to build up 12 national brand for agricultural products such as Xuan Hung mango (Xuan Loc); La Nga mango (Dinh Quan); Tan Trieu grapefruit (Vinh Cuu); Xuan Dinh ramputan (Xuan Loc); Trang Dai vegetable (Bien Hoa city); Truong An vegetable (Xuan Loc); Gia Tan vegetable (Thong Nhat); Tan Tien vegetable (Xuan Loc); durian (Long Khanh town); soursop (Cam My); pepper (Xuan Loc); Phu Son pig; Donafoods cashew; Tan Hanh anabas (Bien Hoa city); Ho Nai wood furniture (Bien Hoa city).

    Reported by Ba Thong, Translated by Minh Minh