Agribusiness

Improved market engagement for counter-seasonal vegetable producers in north-western Vietnam

Image
close-up of a brown cow in a pasture with cows in the background
Project code
AGB/2009/053
Program
Budget
AUD 1,752,051
Project leader
Gordon S Rogers - Applied Horticultural Research
Commissioned organisation
Applied Horticultural Research, Australia
Duration:
APR 2011
DEC 2016
Project status
Concluded
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Overview

This project aimed to effectively and sustainably link vegetable suppliers in northern Vietnam with modern retailers.

Vietnamese love vegetables, but Hanoi's scorching summer temperatures mean local farmers cannot grow popular crops such as tomatoes, cabbage and beans. Instead, such produce is imported from China or brought in from the south.

The solution could be found in highland Moc Chau region, which is just four hours by road from Hanoi, sufficiently cool to grow temperate vegetables there in summer, and has 40,000 hectares of good farming land.

Project staff were working with research institutes, regional government and private sector organisations in Vietnam to train farmers to engage effectively with retailers in Hanoi.

86 project farmers from four villages in Moc Chau supplied more than 1,240 tonnes of accredited safe vegetables to retailers in Hanoi, in a new industry that benefits all sectors of the value chain.

Farmers could earn 300 million VND (AUD$18,000) per hectare from accredited safe vegetables, which is 150% more than from conventional vegetable cropping, and 14 times more than the 20 million VND (AUD$1,260) per hectare they could expect from growing maize or rice.

Key partners
Center for Agrarian Systems Research and Development
Centre de Cooperation Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Developpement
Fruit and Vegetable Research Institute
Hanoi Agricultural University
Northern Mountainous Agriculture and Forestry Science Institute
Documents