High potential of fruit and vegetable exports in Thanh Hoa

Fruit and vegetable exports in Thanh Hoa provinces is still incommensurate with its potential. The export value of agricultural products mainly comes from seafood.

Many enterprises invested, joined fruit and vegetable production towards export. Photo: VD.

Exporting fruits and vegetables is considered as Thanh Hoa's potential industry. With 3,000 hectares under cultivation of  fruits and vegetables anually, Thanh Hoa is expected to earn a huge turnover from exporting fruits and vegetables. According to calculations,  specialized areas in fruit  and vegetable production for export bring about relatively stable economic values.  Spinach creates a turnover of VND 300 million/ha/6 months in winter and spring; soybean bring about VND 250 million/ha per year; sweet corn VND 180 million/ha per year. However, balance of the agricultural export value is in favor of seafood.  

According to Thanh Hoa's Department of Agricultural and Rural Development, in 2020, the province's export value of the agricultural products reached over US$ 112 million. However, the most valuable export products were mainly seafood.  Agro-forestry exports reached  nearly US$ 17 million and seafood gained over US$ 95.5 million. Agro-forestry products exported were mainly tapioca starch; livestock meat, Surimi fish sticks, fish meal and woodchips.

According to the department, the province have many agricultural products that are competitive enough and put up for sale at the high demanding markets such as Japan, the US, and EU. With the diversity of climate and terrain, the province has great potential to develop agricultural products for exporting , especially fruits and vegetables .

In recent years, a number of valuable crops for processing and exporting, meeting market demand such as sweet corn, tomatoes, gherkins have been put into production and intensively cultivated in many province's localities, resulting in high economic efficiency. Many fruit and vegetable exporting enterprises have become reliable companions with farmers.

Along with the innovation in production, processing and consumption, the enterprises have actively established concentrated raw material areas, step by step ensuring food safety and hygiene. This is a "key" to expand the agricultural product consumption market and develop fruit and vegetable production areas for exporting in the province.

Currently, the market for agricultural products, especially fruits and vegetables is continuously expanding, forming many linkage models for producing, processing and consuming agricultural products, mainly export crops which benefits farmers and enterprises and contribute to boosting the economic restructuring. The districts including Hoang Hoa, Tho Xuan, Trieu Son, Yen Dinh, Thieu Hoa, Nga Son boldly took a leading role in signing contracts with many enterprises to build specialized raw material areas for the export of fruits and vegetables.

To produce fruits and vegetable for processing and exporting with high economic efficiency, many localities are flexible in developing mechanisms and policies to encourage the expansion of linkage models between farmers and enterprises; supporting cooperatives to build relationship between producers and exporters. Localities encourage farmers to using new varieties, applying advanced techniques for fruit and vegetable processing, and investing in models of high-quality fruit and vegetable production.

However,  the problem of the agricultural exporting enterprises in Thanh Hoa is limited resources.

On the other hand, over the past time, cultivation activities did not follow up planning, making the management and investment in infrastructure development  face challenges. Crop production was not concentrated resulting in fluctuating supplies, causing  a locally shortage or excess demand, affecting the application of scientific and technical advances, raising production costs, creating difficulties in quality, food safety and diseases management.