Many challenges in building a large production area

​Trong Duc Cocoa Company Limited (Dinh Quan District) has to expand its investment in cocoa growing material areas to the Central Highlands provinces because the agricultural land in these provinces is still highly available. Photo: Cocoa seed production at Trong Duc Cocoa Co., Ltd. Photo: Phan Anh

The association with farmers and cooperatives to build large-scale raw material areas to meet the increasing requirements of the market is still facing many challenges.

Big field is still small

The policy of developing the "Big field" of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development was once considered as one of the solutions to restructure agricultural production to get rid of the fragmented production, small and spontaneous production to switch to a large commodity market economy. Because retail makes production costs high, fragmentation makes it difficult for mechanization; spontaneous production causing uneven quality of agricultural products.

But the reality of developing large fields in localities has not yet escaped the vicious circle of fragmentation, smallness, and spontaneity. Recently, the People's Committee of Dong Nai Province has approved 16 large field projects invested by both cooperatives and enterprises. Most of the projects are only a few tens of hectares in size. A number of projects planned by investment enterprises set a development goal of thousands of hectares, but after many years of implementation, only a few dozen or a few hundred hectares have been formed and the journey to develop to the target number is challenging. The initial target is still very long because there are still many difficulties and barriers in the implementation process.

The project "Large field of cocoa planted with cashew" is invested by Bamboo Capital Joint Stock Company (Ho Chi Minh City) in An Vien Commune, Trang Bom District and then continues to expand to other localities in the area of the province with the goal of building a material area of ​​thousands of hectares. The project was started in 2016 but so far, An Vien large field has only developed a few dozen hectares of cocoa intercropping with cashew trees, although this company has invested in a factory to purchase and process cocoa beans right in the raw materials area together with many policies to support farmers participating in large fields.

Mr. Nguyen Van Thu, one of the pioneer farmers participating in the large field project of growing cocoa with cashew nuts in An Vien Commune with a scale of nearly ten hectares shared: “The first phase of participating in the large field project is to grow cocoa beans intercropping in cashew orchards, farmers face many difficulties because the investment in infrastructure for production such as electricity and roads is still behind schedule than planned. Many farmers are afraid to join large fields project because of lack of trust. Currently, although cocoa trees intercropped in cashew trees in this area have only just begun to harvest, the economic efficiency has increased significantly compared to specialized cashew cultivation, so many farmers have begun to actively participate.

Talking about the difficulty of investing in a large specialized farming area in Dong Nai, Mr. Tran Quang Tinh, Director of Viet Farm Co., Ltd (Xuan Truong Commune, Xuan Loc District) added that the enterprise already has export partners. To export cantaloupe to many countries, it is necessary to build a large raw material area. But enterprises could not find a large land area for agricultural production in Dong Nai Province, so they redirected their investment to Ninh Thuan Province with a farm size of about 500 hectares. The lack of a large land for agricultural production is also the reason why some businesses that are planning to invest in large fields in Dong Nai turn their investments to the Highlands, Central Highlands and even in Laos.

Lack of sustainable business link

Large field of rambutan in Binh Loc Commune, Long Khanh City has not yet built a close linkage chain from production to consumption, farmers still mainly sell rambutan to traders. Photo: Phan Anh

The Covid-19 epidemic, the congestion of agricultural products at the Chinese border gate and difficulties for export affected the entire agricultural product consumption market. Because many agricultural products, especially fresh fruits, are seasonal, so as soon as exports are stopped, fresh fruit and agricultural products for export immediately drop in price, even not being consumed. More than ever, building a sustainable chain of links from production to harvesting, processing and sustainable consumption plays an important role today.

But in fact, the link between enterprises, cooperatives and farmers is still easily broken; The cooperative has not fully promoted its role as a bridge and connection. This is a barrier in the construction and continued expansion of large fields.

Pointing out the current great paradox, Ms. Ngo Tuong Vi, Deputy Director of Chanh Thu Fruit Import Export Co., Ltd (Ben Tre Province) commented that many agricultural products, especially domestic fresh fruits, are falling their prices due to large supply, even congested. Meanwhile, many markets are opening to import Vietnamese fresh fruits with great demand but domestic products cannot meet them. Specifically, recently, when China inspected the packaging as well as the area code, a lot of Vietnamese fruit and vegetable export shipments did not meet the standards. “In order to increase the competitiveness of agricultural products for export, many radical and synchronous solutions are needed from production organization, supply chain construction, goods circulation to import and export management, etc” – Ms. Vi said.

Sharing the same opinion, Ms. Dang Thi Thuy Nga, Director of Xuan Dinh Agricultural Service Trading Cooperative (Xuan Loc District) shared: “For many years in a row building a large durian field, the cooperative always tries to find partners who are the supermarkets, domestic enterprises and exporters to join the chain of association to buy products for farmers participating in large fields. But so far, the cooperative has not really built a close link because the price of durian fluctuates too much, when this kind of fruit is hot, farmers are willing to sell it to outside traders. It is difficult for cooperatives to guarantee output when signing contracts with enterprises, so the output is still floating according to the market."

Phan Anh