HCM City (VNA) – MoreVietnamese businesses should be shifting to processing and exporting vegetablesand fruits, which has high demand worldwide, Vo Mai, Vice Chairwoman of the VietnamGardening Association, has said.

Traditional crops such as rice, pepper, cashew, rubber and coffee in Vietnam havereached their limits in terms of farming area, productivity and market growthpotential, while the global demand for fresh and frozen vegetables is on therise.

Many Vietnamese companies are now investing in vegetable and fruit processingto take advantage of the rising market.

Lavifood Joint Stock Company, for example, has opened a 1.8 trillion VND (77.5million USD) processing factory for vegetables and fruit in Tay Ninh province,with the ability to buy lower-grade fruits to make juice and dried fruit,boosting farmers’ sales and reducing waste, according to its Deputy Director DinhHung Dung.

Late last year, Vina T&T Import – Export Service Co. Ltd also beganconstruction of a coconut factory in Ben Tre province. Its Director Nguyen DinhTung told Tuoi Tre Newspaper that Ben Tre coconuts are highlycompetitive and regarded, and the factory will help boost the revenue offarmers and reduce waste.

Nguyen Xuan Cuong, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, said thatsuch products bring high economic value, but there are only 156 vegetable andfruit processing factories in Vietnam.

Only 1 million tonnes, out of of 27 million tonnes produced every year, areprocessed in factories, so there are many opportunities to invest in processingfactories for these products.

Vo Mai said that Vietnam became one of the world’s leading processors ofcashew, pepper and coffee, and that it could also reach the same achievementsin processing vegetables and fruits for the global market.

Phung Van Hien, Director of the Global Fresh Fruits Company in Ben Tre, notedthat global demand for vegetables and fruits was high, so the important factorwould be to ensure quality for exports.

Meanwhile, Vietnamese mangoes have recently entered the US, a market thatdemands strict specifications. The upcoming direct flights from Vietnam to theUS mean that the competitiveness of Vietnamese produce can expect to rise inthe future, according to Hien.

In 2018, the exports of vegetables and fruits reached over 3.8 billion USD,with an average growth rate of 15 percent annually in the last five years.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, in 2018,105,000 hectares of farmland that cultivated inefficient rice species have beenconverted to fruit and vegetable growing areas.

Rice output still grew by 1.24 million tonnes last year despite a decline infarming area, but the quantity and quality of fruits and vegetables rose.-VNA