Billions of dollars from fruit and vegetable exports will be brought back to farmers in a real way if they have consensus in cooperation, innovate production organization, spread out cultivation, and closely link the chain to meet quality and output. And most importantly, understand market trends, grow what crops the market needs to "have a good harvest, good price".

Mr. Nguyen Phong Phu, Technical Director of Vina T&T Group Company said that in the past, fruit export announcement ceremonies have been regularly held in some localities in the Mekong Delta (MD) to major markets. For example, the announcement ceremony for mango exports in An Giang, longan exports in Can Tho or in March 2025, there will be an announcement ceremony for mango exports from Tien Giang province to the US.

Consensus in cooperation

From these export announcement ceremonies, according to Mr. Phu, farmers will realize that only by growing and cultivating quality fruits and vegetables can they export to demanding markets with high value besides the familiar market of China.

The technical director of Vina T&T Group also shared that when working with local cooperatives, the company always encourages farmers who are cooperative members to cultivate in different seasons. Then there will be a steady supply of goods for the company all year round (helping to ensure a large amount of goods for continuous export to international contacts), and cooperative members will also have a steady income every month.

“To export effectively, we always look for quality fruit sources, ensure year-round output and orient farmers to cultivate cleanly. For example, the company purchases star apples all year round for cooperatives. If during the main season, the purchase price is only about 30,000 - 40,000 VND/kg, but once farmers plant in the off-season or in the off-season, the purchase price is up to 70,000 - 90,000 VND/kg," said Mr. Phu.

In addition, Mr. Phu emphasized that in order to ensure output for farmers, cooperatives need to link together to have large output. Fruit exporting enterprises always need a contact from a cooperative or a cooperative union or a group of cooperatives. From that contact, when working with the company, they can get large orders, while the company cannot buy goods individually and inconsistently from each individual in the cooperative. Therefore, members of the cooperative or cooperative must focus on one contact to work with the company in providing goods for export.

Thus, it can be seen that consensus and close cooperation between farmers, cooperatives and enterprises in exporting fruits and vegetables are very important. This will help farmers benefit better instead of struggling with output or falling into the refrain of "good harvest, low price" or "good price, bad harvest". That is why it is necessary for farmer organization models such as cooperative groups and agricultural cooperatives to be more effective, especially increasing the connection between farmers and cooperatives, removing difficulties in organizing production and applying technical advances.

Moreover, farmers also need to understand market trends, grasp the needs and implement short-term or long-term cultivation, calculating the time to recover capital. When cultivating, they should follow the majority to get large output. At that time, purchasing companies will look at it. If farming is small-scale, it will be difficult to link with enterprises.

In order for farmers and cooperatives to have stable output, experts say they should have a stable output all year round. Then, buyers will look at and seek them out. Normally, exporters will buy grade 1 fruits at high prices, while farmers can still supply other processing enterprises with grade 2 and 3 fruits.

In addition, according to Mr. Nguyen Van Muoi, Deputy General Secretary of the Vietnam Fruit and Vegetable Association, farmers should determine the appropriate time to invest in cultivation to limit risks in terms of price and output.

Growing what the market needs

Mr. Muoi emphasized that increasing the proportion of processing in fruit and vegetable exports will help farmers benefit better and help solve the problem of agricultural product consumption (with seasonal pressure and large output). In reality, the level of processed fruit and vegetable products when brought to the market in Vietnam is still modest, only about 20 - 30%. Meanwhile, if referring to Taiwan (China), we will see that fruit and vegetable products after production and processing to bring to the market have reached 80%.

To avoid the refrain of "good harvest, low price", the Deputy General Secretary of the Vietnam Fruit and Vegetable Association pointed out that in addition to promoting deeper processing, farmers must pay attention to when to consume more or less in order to have measures to avoid the season.

"Currently, there are many types of fruit for farmers to adjust for the off-season. For example, durian in the Mekong Delta is doing well in the off-season, but other regions should not follow suit. Because every issue has two sides. Off-season farming requires expensive investment, high costs, and if market prices fluctuate, farmers will be caught off guard,” Mr. Muoi noted.

On the other hand, Mr. Muoi advises farmers to consider whether or not they have export potential when growing a crop. In fact, there are some types of fruit that farmers grow that can only be consumed domestically and are very difficult to export.

Data also shows that the consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables in the domestic market currently accounts for 80-85% of the total production output of the Vietnamese fruit and vegetable industry. The main fruits consumed domestically are: oranges, tangerines, lemons, grapefruits, sapodilla, custard apples, custard apples, bananas, mangoes, longans, rambutans, etc. The purchasing and supply system is mostly undertaken by traders. Notably, a large amount of fruit is harvested from May to September every year. During the peak harvest season, supply exceeds demand, leading to a sharp drop in fruit prices, bringing many risks to farmers.

From such shortcomings in the domestic market, there will be lessons learned for farmers when participating in the export chain for fruits and vegetables. They will need to make changes in the form of production organization to benefit from the "billion dollar" value of fruit and vegetable exports.

As the figures for fruit and vegetable exports in 2024 show, it has reached more than 7.12 billion USD and is determined to reach a turnover of 8 billion USD in 2025. With such a revenue of billions of USD, it is very necessary for farmers to benefit substantially. Of course, it is important that farmers grow what the market needs, not sell what they have.

Source: VnBusiness