Opportunity for Vietnamese bananas to join global chain
Although Vietnam is a tropical country highly suitable for banana cultivation, it has yet to capitalise and make great headway into the regional and global marketplace.
The country currently produces roughly 1.4 million tonnes of bananas per annum and its cultivation area makes up approximately 19% of the total areas devoted to fruit farming.
However, banana plantation is not concentrated in any specific area and there is a definite lack of adequate transportation and preservation methods to assure that the fruit can timely find its way to the marketplace before spoiling.
Le Si Cong, Director of La Ba Da Lat Company in Central Highland Lam Dong province, says Japan needs to import around 10-20 tonnes of laba banana a day, but Vietnam does not produce enough laba banana to meet the demand.
In addition to Japan, the UK, Russia and Ukraine are also keen on laba banana – a specialty fruit of Lam Dong province.
In the meantime, the cultivation area has been shrinking sharply and now only accounts for a mere 200ha in Lam Dong as farmers are shifting production to other fruits.
Vietnamese export value of bananas to China, Singapore, the Republic of Korea and many Eastern European countries, was reported to have increased significantly for the past few months..
Export prices also rose by 20% correspondingly, but farmers simply do not have sufficient bananas to supply.
Currently, China needs to purchase around 20-30 tonnes per day, and Japan asks for 15-20 tonnes, yet Vietnamese bananas are in short supply.
In the near future, Vietnam is advised to coordinate and step up production and quality control standards to meet the regional markets’ demands.
