Farmers belonging to the Nhan Tam Agricultural Service Co-operative in Ba Ria – Vung Tau province’s Xuyen Moc District harvest longan on lands that have been allotted farming codes. (Photo: VNA) To get a production unit code, a farmer should have at least 6ha and practiseVietnamese good agricultural practices (VietGAP) or other equivalent qualitystandards.
The province has eight farming areas that have been granted codes by the PlantProtection Department.
A 29.5ha longan growing area and two banana areas covering 420ha in Xuyen Mocand Chau Duc districts export to China, two longan areas covering 24ha in XuyenMoc export to the US and Australia and three grapefruit areas covering 50ha inPhu My town export to the EU.
There are also two establishments that package bananas for export to China and theRepublic of Korea that have codes.
Phan The Hoanh, director of the Nhan Tam Agricultural Service Cooperative inXuyen Moc district, said the cooperative received a code for its 29.5ha oflongan orchards in 2018 and exports the fruit through official channels toChina.
During the last longan harvest season, it completed procedures to export toJapan and now ships an average of 12 tonnes a month to that country.
The codes have helped improve the competitiveness of agricultural products anddevelop sustainable value chains for agricultural products, Hoanh said.
Nguyen Chi Duc, head of the province’s Plant Protection and CultivationSub-Department, said the sub-department is helping farmers register codes forkey fruits.
It is petitioning the plant protection department to grant the codes to fourgrapefruit growing areas in Phu My town for exporting to China, he said.
It is in the process of applying for the codes for four dragon fruit growing areaswith a total of 57ha in Xuyen Moc district and six durian growing areas with atotal of 80ha in Chau Duc district, he said.
These areas have already got VietGAP certification, he said.
The province Department of Agriculture and Rural Development has applied forVietGAP and GlobalGAP certification, and developed value chains foragricultural products of high quality for exports.
It has promoted advocacy to enhance farmers and companies’ awareness of theneed to strictly comply with requirements related to the codes.
The Song Xoai Green Skin and Pink Flesh Grapefruit Cooperative in Phu My townhas 18ha of grapefruit farms that produce 540 tonnes a year of organic fruits,maintains a schedule of the cultivation and has a brand name.
Ho Hoang Kha, deputy director of the cooperative, said the grapefruits meetconditions to be exported to China and the EU.
The cooperative is completing procedures to apply for the code, he said, addingthat the cooperative hope to receive the code soon to facilitate exports.
Agricultural products that meet export requirements but do not have the codesface difficulties, according to many cooperatives./.
VNA
