PROCESSING INDUSTRY: THE KEY STEP TO INCREASE THE VALUE OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, in the period of 2013 - 2019, our country's agricultural product processing industry has made significant progress in both size and modernity compared to the period of 2007-2012, with the growth rate of value added average about 5 - 7%/year. Preliminary data collected from localities show that 63/63 provinces and cities across the country have processing enterprises for the local main agriculture, forestry and aquatic products. Specifically, the province has at least 2 processing industries, some localities have 10 - 11 processing industries. Large corporations and enterprises have also cooperated with farmers in production and processing such as Loc Troi, Hau River Food, Vinamilk, TH True milk, Vineco, Masan, ... creating positive changes.

However, Mr. Nguyen Quoc Toan, Director of the Department of Agricultural Product Processing and Market Development (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development) admitted: "The processing technology level in our country is currently at the average level of the world". The number of small and medium-sized agro-forestry and aquatic product processing establishments and households accounts for about 95%. Equipment innovation rate is only 7% / year (only half to 1/3 of other countries).

Many lines of processing facilities are over 15 years old (accounting for over 70%) with old equipment, outdated technology and low productivity (tea, rubber, cassava). The post-harvest losses are still large (10 - 20%) due to the lack of satisfactory storage facilities (vegetables, fruits, cassava meet 20-30%; coffee, pepper, cashew, tea are 10 - 15%; capture fisheries 15 - 20%; rice 5-7%) ... In addition, post-harvest preservation of agricultural products plays a very important role, but application technology after harvest remains weak so the fine processed products have not been exploited effectively.

Dr. Nguyen Minh Tan, Director of Research and Development Institute of Natural Products Application, Hanoi University of Science and Technology released the data: Vietnam agriculture currently has a number of industries with processing rates at low as vegetables, fruits (about 10%), tea (about 40%). Wood and seafood industry has high processing capacity, but it only reaches 65-78%. Particularly for the fruit and vegetable industry, 90% of the products are exported as fresh, and the domestic consumption of vegetables and fruits in the fresh form also accounts for more than 70%. Most domestic enterprises do not have enough capital to invest in raw material areas and production plants. The number of raw material of fruit and vegetable regions in the country that can meet the concentrated processing industry is not much.

In the North there are only a few areas such as pineapple of Dong Giao (Ninh Binh), pineapple of Lao Cai with a total area of about 5,000 ha in both regions, giving an output of about 70,000 tons / year, of which up to 50% of consumption is fresh in the country and 50% are raw materials for export processing. Luc Ngan litchi (Bac Giang) and Thanh Ha litchi (Hai Duong) have relatively high yields, but the harvest and processing time is only within 1.5 months. Specialized fruit growing areas such as oranges in Ha Giang, Ham Yen (Tuyen Quang) ... only serve the needs of fresh produce in the country.

The aforementioned limitations have contributed to the "good crop - devaluation" situation for many types of agricultural products, leaving farmers in a difficult situation. That is also the reason why the phrase "rescuing agricultural products" has become more and more familiar every time it enters a main agricultural crop in recent years.

The story of "King of bread" Kao Sieu Luc gave birth to dragon bread or Duy Anh Food Company Limited (Phu Hoa Dong commune, Cu Chi district, Ho Chi Minh City) producing rice noodle and rice paper from dragon fruit ... in order to "rescue dragon fruits" are specific examples showing that improvement of processing technology is the key step to enhance the value of agricultural products.

Next is the story of a research team at the Institute of Natural Products Application Research and Development (INAPRO) developing JEVA technology that helps businesses process fresh fruits into concentrated juice products, helping fresh fruit, which has not been preserved for a long time, has become a long-term shelf-life, convenient daily use ... Or clean pork MeatDeli is processed and tightly packed by European technology to help prevent bacteria invade, keep meat fresh for 9 days ... That shows the fact that if people can link with businesses, apply technology to process agricultural products after harvesting, perhaps agricultural products do not have to be discarded as seen in recent times.

The aforementioned story also shows that, for many years, most farmers are still alone in production. The reason, according to Ms. Nguyen Thi Hien, Deputy Director of Minh Hien Food Co., Ltd. (Thanh Oai district), is that scientists are currently "swimming" to find ways to bring their applications to connect with businesses, while businesses are not "salty" with new applications due to high risks, large investment but long payback, while farmers are limited in information and do not have enough funding ...

To overcome the above limitations, according to Mr. Nguyen Quoc Toan, Director of the Department of Agricultural Product Processing and Market Development, the first solution is that we need to promote mechanization along the value chain and focus on the key products according to three product grades; land consolidation; invest in upgrading and completing agricultural and rural infrastructure suitable with promoting synchronous mechanization in agricultural production.

Next, it is necessary to focus on developing clusters of production - processing and consumption of agricultural products in localities and regions with good conditions on agricultural output, transportation, labor, logistics and have the potential to become the driving force of growth for the whole region such as: Linkage cluster of rice-growing areas associated with milling and preservation establishments in the Red River Delta region; clusters linking brackish water aquaculture zones with export frozen processing establishments in coastal provinces; cluster of growing vegetables and fruit trees in association with export fruit and vegetable processing establishments in provinces in the Red River Delta and the northern midland region ...

The most important thing is to promote investment in the industry of manufacturing machinery and equipment for agriculture, processing agricultural products, and restructuring products; effectively implement policies to encourage enterprises to invest in processing and preserving agricultural products...

If Vietnam's agricultural products cannot solve the bottlenecks on processing and mechanization industries for large-scale production, the dream of improving the export efficiency of agricultural products commensurate with their potentials and strengths will be hard to come true.

Source: http://hanoimoi.com.vn/

Publication date: April 18th, 2020.