Breakthrough in the export of industrial crops

Coffee warehouse of Intimex Xuan Loc Joint Stock Company in Xuan Dinh commune (Xuan Loc district)

The area of industrial crops in the province such as coffee and pepper is decreasing sharply compared to before. But Dong Nai still orients to build specialized farming areas, attracting investment in deep processing to increase the competitiveness of these crops. 

Difficulties, exports still grows

According to the report of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, in 2022, agricultural exports will face many difficulties and challenges due to the consequences of the Covid-19 epidemic, the broken international supply chains have not fully recovered, the situation has not fully recovered. High inflation reduces purchasing power in world markets…

However, exports of coffee and pepper products still grew well. Specifically, in the 11 months of 2022, the export turnover of coffee products reached USD 439 million, up 33.7% over the same period last year; pepper reached USD 59 million, up more than 5% over the same period. According to the Coffee and Cocoa Association (Vicofa), with this impressive growth momentum, the goal of reaching an export turnover of USD 3 billion in 2022 has soon been achieved and is quite likely to reach the expectation that it will set record turnover of USD 4 billion.
Mr. Tran Thien Hai, Deputy Director of Intimex Xuan Loc Joint Stock Company in Xuan Dinh Commune (Xuan Loc District) said that from the beginning of the year until now, coffee exports have been quite favorable, achieving high growth compared to the same period last year. Contributing to this growth is the increase in export coffee prices over the same period. The domestic supply of coffee is still quite stable.
With nearly 100 thousand hectares, Dong Nai is one of the localities of the country with a large area of industrial plants including: cashew, rubber, coffee, pepper... However, in the past few years, the area of these industrial plants has grown. The above crops decreased sharply, including coffee and pepper which are products with export advantages.

Industrial crops such as rubber, coffee, cashew, pepper... are still strong agricultural products on the list of 15 key national agricultural products. This is also a key crop group that Dong Nai will focus on developing in the project "Improving competitiveness of agricultural products in Dong Nai province in the context of international economic integration". One of the important contents of the above project is to encourage farmers to produce safe and qualified production in difficult markets and attract investment in deep processing.

Pepper farmers in Phu Hoa commune, Dinh Quan district expect the next harvest, pepper prices will still reach a good level

Area decreased but still maintained export strength
According to data from the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, as of June 2022, the total coffee area is more than 7,000 hectares, down 10 hectares compared to the same period last year; pepper area remained nearly 11.9 thousand ha, down 64 ha over the same period. The area under these crops has decreased by thousands of hectares compared to a few years ago. The reason why farmers race to cut down industrial crops is that the profit is much lower than that of other crops.
Coffee used to be one of the top crops selected to deploy large sample field projects in many localities in the province such as Cam My, Tan Phu, Xuan Loc… But so far, coffee farmers have grown coffee. In these specialized farming areas, coffee trees are also abandoned. Mr. Tran Quang Hiep, Director of Xuan Que Agricultural - Service - Trade Cooperative (Cam My District) said that in the past, the cooperative had signed a contract with a company to build a large field of 4C coffee. But after a few years of implementation, the area of coffee still decreased sharply because the cooperative members abandoned this crop, and every household that still kept it switched to intercropping with fruit trees. The reason is, the profit from growing coffee is much lower than that of some other crops.
Orientation for the goal of improving the competitiveness of agricultural products in Dong Nai province in the context of international integration, Dr. Dang Kim Khoi, Director of the Agricultural Policy Advisory Center (Institute of Policy and Strategy for Development agriculture and rural development) emphasized, in the export market, Dong Nai needs to form a number of value chains for strategic agricultural products to enter the global value chain; towards the official export market with high quality. In the domestic market, Dong Nai will become the main source of high quality agricultural products for the market of Ho Chi Minh City and some neighboring provinces.
Also according to Dr. Dang Kim Khoi: “Dong Nai must aim to become a center of industry - processing agricultural products; the leading commercial and service center for agricultural products in the region as well as in the whole country. Localities should have policies to encourage the application of high technology in production development; policies to attract farmers and enterprises to invest; special attention should be paid to attracting leading enterprises to pave the way for breakthroughs for strategic value chains of strong local agricultural products.

According to a report of the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, in 2022, the province's agricultural - forestry - fishery exports will grow well. Specifically, in the 11 months of 2022, the export turnover of wood products and furniture reached USD 1.755 billion, up 4.5% over the same period in 2021; export of aquatic - seafood products reached USD 129.4 million, up 16.5% over the same period...