Vietnamese farmers once rushed to apply GAP (Good Agriculture Practices) in agriculture in order to grow fruits for export and domestic consumption. However, they have become tired of GAP because their products cannot find buyers.

The Lo Ren Vinh Kim Star Apple Cooperative in Chau Thanh District in Tien Giang province has been well known as one of the first establishments, which got Global GAP certificate which is recognised at all export markets, in 2008. At first, the growing area which got certificate only covered seven hectares. Later, the certified area has been expanded to 55 hectares which provide 400 tons of standardized star apple fruit every year, out the total output of 30,000 tons in the whole region.

According to Nguyen Van Ngan, at first, the star apples grown in accordance with a strict production process which allows ensuring food safety and easy traceability were sold at Metro supermarket chain.

After that, they found the way to reach out to foreign markets such as the UK or Canada, though the export volume was low, about 10 tons only. The sale price at that time, according to Ngan, was about 42,000 dong per kilo, just 10,000 dong per kilo higher than the market price for normal fruits.

Despite the attractive prices, in recent years, Global GAP star apples have been only sold on the domestic market, while they still cannot enter export markets. The problem is that no solution has been found to deal with fruit flies; therefore, import countries still cannot grant codes to the production areas.

“The Southern Fruit Research Institute SOFRI is undertaking the work of finding the solution to the fruit flies. The work would be completed by the end of the year at the soonest,” he said.

The My Hoa Cooperative in Vinh Long province has also fallen into a dilemma. The cooperative’s chair Tran Van Sang said that in 2010, only two containers of Nam Roi brand pomelo, which could meet Global GAP, were exported.

According to Sang, the demand for high quality pomelos is very high. However, the sale prices do not correspond to the production costs. This, plus with the lack of the post-harvesting technology and preservation stores, both have prompted farmers to give up Global GAP to grow normal pomelos.

“The obtaining of certificate for tens of hectares of Nam Roi pomelos alone will cost USD7,700, while the sale prices are unstable. All that has discouraged farmers,” he said.

According to Dr Nguyen Tho, Permanent Chair of the Vietnam Vegetation Protection Association, at first, production cooperatives could get support from local authorities or organisations to follow Viet GAP and Global GAP and get certificates. However, they do not have money to get the certificates again.

New hopes

Experts have attributed the current problems to the bad programming and investment. To date, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development MARD has only released the Decision No 379 in 2008, and promulgated Viet GAP, the production process for good agriculture practices in Vietnam.

We are still do not have a detailed program which serves as the basis for the development of specialized growing areas, where some selected key fruits are grown. The areas will receive heavy investments in varieties, capital and techniques,” said Nguyen Minh Chau, Head of SOFRI.

Dr Vo Mai, Head of the Management Board of the Tien River GAP Link, said that the organization includes 22 cooperatives and complexes which trades fruits and vegetables of seven provinces on the Tien River, including Dong Thap, Vinh Long, Tra Vinh, Tien Giang, Ben Tre, Long An and HCM City, which was established in 2004.

“We have been meeting a lot of difficulties since then in looking for the outlet for GAP-certified products. The expenses have been gathered from some voluntary enterprises,” he said.

“We wish the Government could help set up a safe farm produce trade market, where farmers can sell their products and buyers can buy safe fruits,” he added.