Everything from citronella and chilies to mushrooms 

Fresh coconuts to be exported The Ben Tre Science & Technology Council has checked and taken over the scientific project on preserving coconuts. The technology will be transferred in early 2009 which will serve the export of coconut. The new technology allows coconut milk to be preserved for six weeks. According to the Ben Tre Science and Technology Department, fresh coconuts are exported to South Korea at VND 20,000/piece of coconut, while they are selling for VND 5,000 on the domestic market. Ben Tre now has over 45,000 ha of coconuts

According to Phan Quoc Nam, Director of Tien Giang Trade, Investment and Tourism Promotion Centre, since mid-2007, MT Company in My Tho City has exported nearly 100 processed items to the US that have been made from over 30 plants being grown in Cuu Long River Delta.

 

Vietnam’s farm produce items, from high-grade products like Lo Ren star apples, dragonfruit, mangosteen, durian to products like citronella, chilli, potatoes and mushrooms, have been available in big supermarkets in New York, Washington and California. Nam said that all the products have the C/O granted by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and have been quarantined by the US Food Drug Administration (FDA) to be circulated in the US market.

 

Tran Thi Hien, Deputy Director of MT Company, said that Vietnam has been successfully exporting a lot of farm produce to the US thanks to the technology of freezing foods.

 

Besides frozen sweet potatoes, manioc, winged yams, citronella, chilli, bananas, sugar cane, coconuts and mushrooms, MT also makes traditional Vietnamese cuisines that are frozen before export.

 

Coconut milk and sugar cane juice have been canned for export, while Vietnamese traditional cakes, like banh tet (cylindric glutinous rice cake, filled with green bean paste and fat pork), banh it (glutinous rice cake filled with meat or green bean paste), and banh dau xanh (cakes made of ground green lentils) have also been brought to supermarkets in the US to serve Vietnamese and Asian communities.

 

Big opportunities, but…

 

Corn for the export

According to Tran Thi Hien, every month, the company exports 100 tons of farm produce of different types to the US, such as 10,000 coconuts and 50,000 cobs of corn.

 

Hien said that the demand for fresh fruits, chilli, and citronella proves to be very big; however, her company has to refuse many orders because of the difficulties in collecting materials. The demand for citronella is as high as 20 tons a month, but she sometimes cannot collect enough materials to fulfill the orders.

 

According to Nam, a lot of farm produce items with low value, which have been sold in village markets, have been exported to the US and can bring big opportunities to Vietnam’s farm produce. However, Nam said, farmers will only get money from the farm produce, if Vietnam can organize large-scale production.