Many agricultural products and fruits of Dong Nai such as mango, grapefruit, rambutan, dragon fruit, banana, durian... have quite high yield and quality and are increasingly produced according to safe processes.

Production activities at an agricultural processing enterprise in Trang Bom district. Photo: H. Quan

In the current context of integration, to increase value and export products to potential markets, in addition to maintaining quality, meeting standards, developing trade connection channels and agricultural logistics services, deep processing inputs and cold storage to preserve agricultural products are also very necessary and urgent.

Contribute to increasing export value

Dong Nai has diverse agricultural products and is capable of building large agricultural commodity production areas associated with processing and consumption of products. Some livestock and fruit products of Dong Nai account for a significant proportion of the country's agriculture, and are exported to many countries around the world.

However, in order to move towards sustainable exports and enhance the brand value of key agricultural products in the area, developing agricultural logistics services, investing in cold storage systems, and deep processing centers are important solutions.

Director of Xuan Dinh Agricultural Service and Trade Cooperative (Xuan Loc district) Dang Thi Thuy Nga said that in the past time, the Cooperative has proactively ensured standards in production to target export markets for durian and some agricultural products to China, Japan, etc. However, the export volume is still modest. In the coming time, the Cooperative will focus on drying and deep processing of fruits such as durian, rambutan, jackfruit... to increase the competitive value of local agricultural products.

Similarly, at the Conference on Connecting Trade between Enterprises, Suppliers, and Distribution Systems of Dong Nai with Some Localities in the Mekong Delta held in early August 2024, Director of Thanh Binh Clean Agricultural Products Production and Consumption Cooperative (Trang Bom District) Ly Minh Hung said that the cooperative's banana production linkage area has expanded to 700 hectares. In addition to the domestic market, the cooperative also promotes export activities, with an average of about 12 containers of bananas exported each month. The cooperative is interested in developing technology for processing and freezing agricultural products to increase product value, aiming to bring products into large distribution and retail systems nationwide, as well as expanding export markets.

Need synchronous investment

In fact, agricultural production in Dong Nai has a fairly abundant supply but unstable output. Some exported agricultural products still depend on a few markets, leading to a high level of risk. Therefore, finding and expanding more export markets and investing in deep processing and preserving agricultural products will help local agricultural production develop stably and sustainably.

The province has selected 2 industrial clusters: Phu Tuc (Dinh Quan district) and Long Giao (Cam My district) to pilot investment and development of the agricultural processing industry. However, up to now, the implementation and development of these industrial clusters still face difficulties and problems...

Recently, at a working session with the Department of Industry and Trade on the situation of industrial and commercial development in the area, the People's Committee of Cam My district proposed a number of contents related to the progress of land use rights auctions, calling for and attracting investment in the Long Giao Industrial Cluster. Thereby, aiming to improve efficiency, processing capacity, and agricultural production for localities and regions.

In addition to investing in developing industrial clusters for agricultural processing, many businesses also want to have more centers and cold storage facilities with sufficient conditions and large scale to meet the growing demand for cold storage and preservation of agricultural products in the area.

Mr. Ly Minh Hung shared that the cooperative wants the locality to support and call for investment in centers and cold storage facilities to meet the increasingly urgent needs today. For example, the cooperative's cold storage is currently only enough to preserve about 200 tons of goods for 10 days, the remaining quantity of goods in storage, waiting for export is not available. If expanded to many businesses and units, the quantity of goods that need to be frozen and preserved will be very large. Therefore, to improve export capacity, investment in developing cold storage services and agricultural processing centers is very necessary, avoiding the situation where each enterprise invests in a fragmented manner, lacking uniformity...

Ms. Dang Thi Thuy Nga expressed: “The durian products of the Cooperative are highly appreciated by many customers and partners for their quality. In addition to meeting the requirements of clean agricultural production, safety standards, and ensuring origin, the Cooperative hopes to have more support from the locality in terms of land funds, investment capital to develop agricultural processing systems, frozen warehouses... Thereby, contributing to increasing the value of local agricultural products, as well as export capacity to potential markets”.

Source: Dong Nai Newspaper