HCM City (VNS/VNA)- The fruit and vegetable farming segment needs to restructure production,enhance linkages among stakeholders in the value chain and invest in modernprocessing plants, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuonghas said.

Speaking at a meeting with farmers and businesses in the Mekong Delta provinceof Long An on February 11 to discuss measures to resolve difficulties caused bythe novel coronavirus epidemic, Cuong said the country has 60,000ha underdragon fruit, which yield three million tonnes a year and fetching nearly 2billion USD from exports.

In the Long An province’s Chau Thanh district alone, all agricultural lands arenow under the fruit.

But he also pointed to limitations like mainly exporting fresh fruits andrelying too much on the Chinese market.

So the dragon fruit segment in particular and the agricultural sector ingeneral needs to restructure, especially in the context of the epidemic,he said.

“This is a good opportunity for major dragon fruit cultivation areas such as BinhThuan, Long An and Tien Giang to review the entire production processto restructure it and persuade businesses to participate inorganising production and processing chains of the fruits.

“Besides continuing exports to traditional markets, we also need to seek morenew export markets.

“Businesses must pay greater attention to the domestic market of 100 millionpopulation.”

They need to develop close links with farmers so that the latter can growproducts that meet the demand in global markets and enterprises must upgradetheir processing chain to improve quality, he said.

Farmers have begun harvesting dragon fruit, but exports to China, the largestmarket for it, has plummeted due to the impact of the epidemic.

“We will firstly seek measures to ensure farmers’ products are consumed andthen proceed to comprehensive restructuring of agriculture in orderto add more value to our agricultural products and ensure a better life forfarmers,” Cuong added.

Dang Ngoc Can, General Director of Lavifood JSC, said: “We specialise inprocessing fruits and vegetables for exports to fastidious markets such asSouth Korea, Japan, the US and the EU. To help reduce farmers’difficulties due to the impact of the epidemic, we have increased the purchaseof dragon fruit and process it into various products such as juice, driedfruit, soft-dried fruits, and frozen products.

“A new product line, the 'We Love' fresh and natural dragon fruit juice, isabout to be launched in the market.

“To do this, we had to completely change our business plan for 2020.”

Lavifood on Tuesday signed an agreement with the Saigon Commercial Joint StockBank, Saigon Co.op [owner of Co.opmart supermarket] and Green Start-up Fund tosupport farmers.

At a working session with Cuong, Long An province authorities called forsubsidising electricity costs for cold storages until the end of March tobusinesses that buy, preserve and export agricultural produce and provide themloans at preferential interest rates to facilitate their purchase of dragonfruits from farmers.

The province also wanted the ministry to establish a distribution centre foragricultural produce in China and connect major dragon fruit-growing localitiesto avoid sudden increases in output./.