Vietnam aims to be in the top 10 deep processing centres of the world by 2030 (Illustrative photo: sggp.org.vn) According to the Department of Agricultural Product Processing and MarketDevelopment from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD),there are currently 7,500 industrial-scale agro-forestry-fishery processingenterprises associated with exports and thousands of establishments ofhousehold processing nationwide.
It is estimated that each year Vietnam is capable of processing, preliminarilyprocessing and preserving about 120 million tonnes of agricultural, forestryand aquatic products. Of which, over 95 percent is done in small andmedium-sized processing establishments.
Although Vietnam’s agricultural product processing industry has made remarkableprogress, the value-added growth rate is about 5-7 percent per year, andprocessing technology is the weakest link in the value chain of agriculturalproducts, said the department.
A representative of an avocado processing business in Lam Dong said hisestablishment did not have access to the right technology to processhigh-quality products from avocados. He said he had invested in machinery forprocessing essential oils from the fruits, but the quality was not as expected.The extracted oil turned bad after only two-three weeks.
Each year, Vietnam can export 120 million tonnes of vegetables and 12 milliontonnes of fruit, mainly fresh produce.
Processed products accounted for only 8-10 percent, or less than 10 milliontonnes per year, while by-products such as fruit peel are still open.
Pham Anh Tuan, director of the Institute of Agricultural Electrical Engineeringand Post-Harvest Technology, said their value would be high if agriculturalproducts could be preliminarily processed and frozen.
For example, honey in Japan has a very high price because they invest a lot inpreliminary processing with modern technology, while Vietnamese honey sometimeswas sold less than a litre of fruit juice because it was processed byrudimentary machinery.
Tuan said only about 150 large enterprises invested methodically in processing,such as Dong Giao and Lavifood, whose technology is more integrated with theworld standard, follow the global market.
Tuan added the majority of the enterprises, known as smallbusinesses, were not interested as they were lack of capital.
Except for capital, the investmentmechanisms and policies for the post-harvest stage have not yet been paidattention to, causing most agricultural products to be marketed in fresh andraw form, said, experts.
Nguyen Quoc Toan, director of the Department of Agricultural Product Processingand Market Development, said that the national science and technologyinnovation program only focused on large enterprises, while small andmedium-sized processing establishments with disadvantages in the capital,science and technology, experience in the industry have not been taken intoaccount.
Toan said according to a Government Resolution in July 2019 on solutions toencourage and promote enterprises to invest in agriculture, by 2030, there willbe 80,000 to 100,000 enterprises having business investment the sector,including about 3,000 to 4,000 large-scale enterprises and 6,000 to 8,000 smalland medium-sized processing establishments.
Pham Anh Tuan said while the global agricultural product preservation industryfocused on safe preparations, biological products, and environmentally friendlychemicals, safe handling technologies and smart packaging, the chains ofpreservation and processing of agricultural products in Vietnam were broken atthe stage of raw material as the logistics system was still poor.
Experts have said processing is a field with great potential and expect Vietnamto be in the world’s top 10 deep processing centres.
“The most important factor that the processing industry needs to aim for iseffective, stable quality and building a prestigious brand name even if it is asmall-scale operation, “Tuan said.
According to experts, to make local agriculture become a commodity productionindustry, the processing industry and the preservation industry must be thekeys to improving export value and reducing the pressure on immediateconsumption.
Tuan said it was necessary to develop general support policies for enterprisesto innovate technology on concentrated processing zones, especially for smalland medium-sized enterprises and even micro-enterprises in the industry.
The agricultural sector needs to build an ecosystem of processing industry andpost-harvest preservation of farm products with coordinating agencies,enterprises, and human resource training./.
VNA
