Building a truly sustainable product chain is the biggest challenge of the Vietnamese durian industry. Source: Internet.

Join the billion-dollar club

According to a report by the Department of Crop Production (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development), from 2017 onwards, due to high prices, the production efficiency brought to producers is great, durian has become enriched farmers in some provinces in the Mekong Delta such as Tien Giang, Vinh Long, Ben Tre, and Can Tho; the Central Highlands such as Dak Lak and Lam Dong; Southeast region such as Dong Nai, Tay Ninh. Farmers have expanded their production area rapidly by planting durian trees in orchards, especially converting some rice areas to growing durian trees in the Mekong Delta. The area of durian has increased rapidly in the past 5 years, by the end of last year, the whole country had developed more than 110,000 ha of durian, an increase of nearly 3 times compared to 2017 (37,000 ha), on average, durian area increased by 24.5% per year during this period. As a result, Vietnam has risen to the third position in the world in terms of durian area and output.

Notably, although it has just entered the world market, Vietnam's durian export has increased to a record thanks to its very good grasp of opportunities after signing the Protocol to export this item through official channels with the Vietnamese government. China. Durian export in the first 7 months of this year earned US$ 1.1 billion, "beating" dragon fruit - a fruit that has ranked first in the top 10 years of export fruits of our country to rise to the top position and officially entered the "billion dollar export club" of the agricultural industry. Vibrant exports also pushed up durian prices in the growing regions. The report on production and price movements of some agricultural products by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development showed that, in July, the price of Ri6 durian increased by 7,400 VND/kg, to 80,000 VND/kg. It is expected that Vietnam's durian exports this year will increase sharply, reaching US$ 1.2-1.5 billion, 3.5 times higher than last year.

Long distance calculation

Prof. Dr. Tran Van Hau, former senior lecturer at Can Tho University, Vietnam's leading expert on durian trees, assessed that Vietnam's durian export potential is still very large in the coming time. Analyzing more closely, Prof. Dr. Tran Van Hau said that in the export market, Indonesian durian, although leading in terms of area, mainly supplies the domestic market. Currently, Thailand is the world's largest durian exporter, with 10 years of experience in exporting this item, it is a big competitor of Vietnam. China the world's largest durian consumption market, has invested in a durian growing area in Hainan island (Sanya city) expected June 2023, the harvest output will reach more than 2.4 thousand tons but In fact, only 50 tons can be harvested, so there is still a wide door for Vietnamese durian to enter this market.

As an enterprise specializing in exporting dragon fruit, passion fruit, durian ... to many markets such as Europe, the United States, Australia, the Middle East and recently Japan, Korea, China, Mai Xuan Thin, Director Director of Red Dragon Production, Trade and Service Co., Ltd (HCMC) said that in addition to fresh durian products, Vietnam's frozen durian products are also exported to many countries in Europe, the United States, Japan, and Korea… but still not getting much attention. Investment to make frozen durian is completely within the capacity of Vietnamese enterprises. The biggest challenge now is to continue to expand the market for this item. Therefore, businesses expect the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to continue negotiating the official export of frozen durians to the Chinese market to contribute to increasing revenue for the whole industry.

Although the potential of the fresh durian export market is still great, for the whole chain of this industry to develop sustainably, it is necessary to attract investment for processing. The "hot" increase in durian area also poses many challenges for this industry to develop sustainably. Besides, although the export of Vietnamese durian has increased sharply, the value of Vietnam's durian export is currently only 1/3 that of Thai durian obtained in the Chinese market.

According to Le Thanh Tung, Deputy Director of the Department of Horticulture and Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Horticultural Association, the biggest challenge of the Vietnamese durian industry is not in terms of yield, quality, or competition with other countries is to build a truly sustainable product chain when the requirements for traceability and food hygiene conditions of export markets are increasing, while the application of technical solutions is still limit ed. Exports will face difficulties if there is no timely change.

In order to develop durian sustainably, Le Thanh Tung suggested that the Departments of Agriculture and Rural Development of the provinces pay attention to deploying and strictly implementing the directive of the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development on the sustainable development of durian production. Accordingly, the relevant units must urgently review the area of durian in the area, and develop a project to develop production in concentrated areas; associated with investment in infrastructure, packaging, preliminary processing and processing facilities; and suitable size. It is necessary to comprehensively plan the concentrated fruit tree growing area, including durian, and develop it into a specialized cultivation area to facilitate mechanized production and product consumption. At the same time, the planning is suitable for each locality, limit ing the situation of oversupply. Disseminate information on durian planting planning through communication channels for farmers to update.

“It is necessary to strengthen support in the formation of storage, cold storage, durian processing, diversifying export forms not only exporting fresh fruits but also needing to increase export of frozen citrus fruits, in order to preserve longer, reducing shipping costs when exporting; create favorable conditions for mechanisms and policies to invite businesses to purchase, export and process agricultural products, including durian in newly converted areas to facilitate product consumption," Deputy Director of Cultivation Department emphasized.