Agricultural Commodities

Professor Le Huy Ham, director general of the Agricultural Genetics Institute in Ha Noi, talks about the potential of cassava, Viet Nam's third most important export crop throughout the last decade. In Viet Nam in recent years, cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is in growing demand as an industrial and food crop. The export value of cassava is about US$1.3-1.5 billion annually, making cassava Viet Nam's third largest export crop, after rice and coffee.

Vietnam’s roadmap for integration via free trade agreements is boosting the export of its traditional products. With its advantage of being the coconut growing land, Ben Tre is facing opportunities to promote coconut products. Many local businesses have been investing in organic products for consumers’ health, along with the commitment to accompany farmers through comprehensive support policies and close cooperation models for sustainable development

HANOI - Vietnam's coffee premiums held steady, with farmers slowing sales on concerns over dry weather affecting output, while domestic buying and thin stocks in Indonesia helped to raise outright prices, traders said on Thursday. The dry season in Vietnam, the world's top robusta producer, is peaking, with water shortages forecast to cut 2016/2017 output. Rival producer Indonesia has low stocks, which has helped to push up export price quotations to a 15-month high.

Vietnam’s cocoa sector should aim its sights at the premium chocolate market, the director of the Internatioanl Cocoa Organisation’s (ICCO) economics and statistics division has urged. Speaking at the second Cocoa Revolution conference held in HCM City yesterday, Laurent Pipitone said that an ICCO panel of experts on Fine Flavour Cocoa recommended that Vietnam’s cocoa production be considered as having a fine flavor cocoa origin.

Vietnam has been warned that it would be outstripped by Thailand and Cambodia in rice exports if it cannot change the current production and export policies. The country has just begun exporting rice to China recently, but it has gained very high export growth rate. Cambodia exported 116,000 tons of rice to the market in 2015, an increase of 138 percent compared to 2014. Meanwhile, the threat from Thailand seems to be worse as the country plans to apply a new rice strategy, while it considers diverting Loei, a branch of Mekong River, to bring water to agricultural areas in the country’s northeastern part.

HANOI - Vietnamese coffee exporters are not shipping fresh stock this week as they face tight supply due to dry weather prevailing in the country, traders said on Tuesday. The dry season in Vietnam, the world's top robusta producer, has started peaking in the Central Highlands coffee belt, requiring growers to step up the watering of trees. Traders said many growers were not selling their produce because domestic prices did not improve much from late February, when a kg of robusta was 29,300-29,500 dong ($1.3), the lowest since mid-Nov 2013.

HCM CITY —  A wide range of furniture, handicrafts, interior décor and support industry products are on display at the VIFA-EXPO 2016 that opened in HCM City yesterday. The annual Việt Nam International Furniture and Home Accessories Fair has seen an increase of 42 per cent in the number of exhibitors and its scale has gone up by 36 per cent over last year, said Nguyá»…n Quốc Khanh, chairman of the Handicraft and Wood Industry Association of HCM City (Hawa).

Of over 9 tons salbutamol imported into Vietnam in 2015, only 10kg was used properly, the rest was mixed into livestock feed. The information was released by Mr. Phan Manh Thong -  Head of Unit 5, Environmental Crime Prevention Department (C49), Ministry of Public Security at the conference of reviewing peak period in food safety in agriculture. This conference was organized on 3^rd of March in Hanoi.

“High volume, low price” situation and market for agricultural products are inherent difficulties of farmers and it tends to be worse. However, changing farmers ‘habit in agricultural production in the context of integration is still a challenges for themselves as well as local authorities. As usual, when it comes to main harvest season, farmers growing watermelons in Gia Lai in particular and other provinces in general struggle to sell their products. While this situation hasn’t had solutions yet, recently thousands tons of watermelons in Gia Lai Province piles up.

DONG NAI (VNS) — While pepper trees are promising a bumper crop this year, farmers in the southern province of Dong Nai are worried about harvesting the trees in time due to a shortage of labourers, local authorities said. Le Thi Hiep, head of Xuan Loc District's Agriculture and Rural Development, said pepper growers found it difficult to hire a large number of people to reap the pepper fruits. As many as 1,800ha out of 3,000 ha of pepper trees were waiting for harvest, she said.

WHO’S IN CHARGE Hoang “Bill” Nguyen and his wife, Ha, started Pho 88 16 years ago. His father, a former soldier in the South Vietnamese army, was imprisoned for 10 years after the Vietnam War ended. With US help, he emigrated with his family and settled in Brighton. After five years as a waiter at the Brighton eatery Pho Pasteur, Nguyen saw an advertisement for the sale of a small Vietnamese restaurant in Lowell. He decided to take the plunge to become a restaurant owner, and so Pho 88 was born.

One remarkable thing about agriculture in Vietnam is that when they see the potential of one crop, they really get into it in a big way. Just like the dragon fruit farms in Long An province that we visited recently. Michael Nguyen Dinh Le, a businessman who is into investments and finance, brought us to the community where no less than 800 hectares were planted with dragon fruits, several years back. He explained that the place used to be devoted to rice. But a feasibility study made by experts convinced farmers to shift to dragon

Rice is referred to as Vietnam’s “white gold” because it is not only a valuable staple crop but also one of the country’s major export products. In 2015, Vietnam exported 6.61 million tons of rice, making it the world’s third-largest rice exporter after only India and Thailand. But, the country’s rice industry has been beset with challenges because of climate change, particularly in its regional granaries—the Red River Delta and the Mekong River Delta. These major rice-growing areas are increasingly becoming vulnerable to salt water intrusion and flooding caused by sea-level rise.

HCM CITY (VNS) — Both local and foreign experts have urged Vietnamese flower growers to cultivate new kinds of flowers and use high-tech planting techniques to develop the industry. Pham Van Hai, CEO of Viet Nam Trade International, said: "The city of Sa Dec in Dong Thap Province, which is one of the country's flower cities, has developed slowly compared to its potential as many farmers have not used advanced technology in cultivation."

Vietnam's rice exports hit US$445 million in the first two months, twice the number of the same period last year, the agriculture ministry reported on Friday. The strong increase was achieved, even as the average price slipped nearly 6 percent to $443.5 a ton, thanks to a sharp increase in quantity. Rice shipments exceeded one million ton in January and February, the ministry said.

QUANG NAM  (VNS) — Vo Van Vinh, a farmer in Dai Nghia Commune in the central Quang Nam Province's Dai Loc District, can earn VND400 million (US$18,000) from his 10ha farm of acacia every five years. It's quite a good income and easy for him and family in comparison to rice farming or raising livestock. Acacia farms have helped over 293 households in the commune earn a living and provided 40 per cent share of the annual budget.