Weak links in mango’s supply chain

​(CTT-Đồng Nai) – With more than 12 thousand hectares, mango is one of Dong Nai’s most exported fruit. Mango is also one of the few fresh fruits that can attract companies to invest in processing it.

Cambodian mangoes being processed at a processing factory in Phu Tuc commune, Dinh Quan district. 

This year, mango farmers suffered yet another loss due to the low selling price. In recent years, farmer after farmer went and chopped down their mango trees. The main reason is that this fruit has not established a stable supply chain, from growing to processing, and consumption.
Fruit exporting market facing many risks

After the COVID-19 pandemic, mango farmers have faced many risk when they started a new crop, the fruit's selling price was often lower than the production costs due to poor export performance, and domestic market's consumption was slower than before.
In 2023, the export of fresh fruit products, and more specifically mango, is looking better than previous years. However, only farmers who started their crops out of season, or harvested their crops early could sell the fruit at a high price; while the rest suffered huge losses. The Taiwanese mango, which were highly profitable and were planted by farmers in large number, suffered massive loss in 3 consecutive years. Every time mange gets a nice crop yield, its price drops because farmers mainly sell their products to merchants who then export it to China. When the supply is higher than demand, or when the Chinese market stops importing, farmers do not know who to sell their products to.
Specifically, early in the season, Hoa Loc mango selling was 20.000VNĐ/kg; Taiwanese mango's price was between 15.000VNĐ to 17.000VNĐ/kg. The Taiwanese experienced the highest drop, as when in season the selling price at a garden is was only 7.000VNĐ to 8.000VNĐ for a kilogram, and was 3.000VNĐ/kg at the end of the season. At this price, after payment for harvesting, farmers only earn less than 2.000VNĐ/kg, and add in 1.500VNĐ/fruit covering expense, farmers were guaranteed to lost their investments and their labors.
Mr. Nguyen Dung, Director of Xuan Truong Mango Commercial Service Co-operative (Xuan Truong commune, Xuan Loc district), said that due to the district's focus on out of season harvest, the quantity of in season is not high. Currently, the district has a few gardens waiting to be harvested, but they could not find a buyer despite the price of Taiwanese or Australian mango was down to only 2.000VNĐ to 3.000VNĐ/ kg. This was caused by the stagnant export market, and the domestic market's dislike of them.
Facing the same problems, Mr. Lai Hong Chi, Director of Sabi Hill Fruit Tree Agriculture Service Co-operative (Xuan Bac commune, Xuan Loc district) shared: “Even though I opened a mango wholesaler, with 4 hectares of Taiwanese mango, my family suffered a 150 million VNĐ investment loss. Even though members of the co-operative could not sell their Taiwanese mangoes, additionally I have to import Cambodian ones as retailers and merchants refuse to buy the former without the latter".

Production paradox
In recent years, mango is always facing the high yield - low price paradox. Beside the exporting risks, even though there is no shortage of factories to process fresh mango, they still prioritize importing mango instead of using domestic supply.

Mr. La Chi Thanh, Leader of the Phu Quy mango Co-operative Group (La Nga commune, Dinh Quan district) said, some farmers are chopping down their Taiwanese mango trees as losses keep mounting. This breed of mango depends entire on the Chinese market. Every time the export market stagnates, farmers just throw away their crops as domestic consumers dislike them; local factories and manufacturers also do not purchase it either.
After each harvest, mango's domestic price is almost free, even left to rot in gardens as factories and manufacturers used imported mangos for their productions. Some groups and co-operatives used to sign contracts with factories and manufacturers in the province to process their mangoes but the results were not as good as they had hoped.

 A representative of Suoi Lon Agriculture, Commercial, Tourism and Service Co-operative (Xuan Hung commune, Xuan Loc district) said, manufacturers offer to buy Taiwanese mango for the entire season at only 4.000VNĐ to 4.500VNĐ/kg, leaving farmers dissatisfied as they cannot make a profit with this low price. This is also the reason that fractures the link between farmers and manufacturers, commercially and legally. According to this, farmers refused to sell to merchants when mango's price went up; and when the price dropped down, manufacturers had found other sources of supply.

According to some local companies, and manufacturers, they prefer the imported Cambodian mango as raw material because of its advantages: firm pulp, lively color, small seed, so the loss rate is minimal. Another plus side is that the harvest duration lasts up to 10-12 months a year; it can maintain its price compared to other domestic breeds. For example, currently farmers can sell their crops at around 3.000VNĐ/kg, even when the price was at its peak it was just more than 10.000VNĐ/kg.​​