Ho Van Kiet, director of Song Xoai Green Skin and Pink Flesh Grapefruit Co-operative in Ba Ria – Vung Tau province’s Phu My town, packages a green skin and pink flesh grapefruit which has an origin - tracing stamp (Source: VNA)
Ba Ria-Vung Tau (VNS/VNA) - Moreagricultural products in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau now havetraceability stamps which improve information transparency and productvalue.
The Bau May TourismAgriculture Trade Cooperative in Xuyen Moc District’s Hoa Hiep Commune began growing 15ha of pepper under global good agriculturalpractices (GobalGAP) standards in 2015 and received GobalGAP certification forthe pepper area three years later.
With GobalGAP-quality pepper, Bau May has developed traceability stamps for its pepper and pepper products toboost sales at home and abroad.
Last year, the cooperative exported more than 100 tonnes of pepperand pepper products at a price between 250,000 - 15 million VND (10.7 – 640 USD) a kilogrammeto many markets such as the EU, Japan, the Republic of Korea and China.
Lam Ngoc Nham, director of Bau May, said the cultivation of pepper under GlobalGAP standards andtraceability stamps have improved the competitiveness of the cooperative’spepper products in domestic and foreign markets.
The pepper products with the stamps have easier access to supermarkets andexport markets, he said.
Bau May now growsmore than 30ha of pepper and produces about 200 tonnes of pepper and pepperproducts a year.
The Song Xoai Green Skinand Pink Flesh Grapefruit Cooperative in Phu My Town’s Song Xoai Commune has used traceability stamps for its green skin and pink fleshgrapefruits since 2018.
The co-operative produces about 2,900 tonnes of green skin and pink fleshgrapefruits a year, including 30 percent of them with traceability stamps andplanted under organic standards.
The cooperative’s grapefruits with traceability stamps sell for 50 percenthigher than the market price.
Ho Van Kiet, director of Song Xoai, said the cooperative’s grapefruits with traceability stamps are plantedunder safe standards and have high quality.
Farmers, cooperatives and companies in the province use traceability stamps forother agricultural products like banana, dragon fruit and vegetables plantedunder VietGAP and GlobalGAP standards.
However, the number of agricultural products with traceability stamps is stillsmall, according to local authorities.
Last year, the provinceial People’sCommittee launched a project to manage an origin tracing system that aims tocreate close linkages among production processes, manage product quality, andfoster the consumer habit of using products with traceability stamps.
The project also aims to raise the awareness of producers about informationtransparency.
Trinh Duc Toan, deputy head of the province’s Agro - Forestry - Fishery ManagementSub-department, said to implement the project effectively, the sub-departmentin cooperation with relevant agencies has advocated origin tracing activitiesand provided training courses on technologies used for tracing origin torelated stakeholders this year.
The sub-department will implement origin tracing on selected agriculturalproducts on a pilot basis this year, he said.
The province has created zones for four specialty agricultural products. Theyare 1,200ha of longan, 1,000ha of soursop, 500ha of green skin and pink fleshgrapefruit and 300ha of dragon fruit.
The four specialty agricultural products will be given support to build brandnames and origin traceability to improve their value in the domestic market andfor export.
At least 20 percent of companies in production, trading and services will havean origin traceability system by 2025, under the province's plan./.
