Improving the quality of tropical fruit Vietnam

In 2020 an initiative to improve the quality of tropical fruit in Vietnam was granted by the Netherlands Enterprise Agency. It took Land Water Food Consult 4 years to prepare and to set up a partnership with leading Vietnamese and Dutch private sector partners. The project is about to start but has to tackle several hurdles which were raised by the corona-crisis.

Viet Nam Farmer’s Union VNFU wants to strengthen the livelihood of farmers who are growing dragon fruit.  A team consisting of MCNV, Bureau Leeters and Land Water Food Consult has been formed to support VNFU to establish a comprehensive, multi annual program to improve the quality of dragon fruit (also called Pitahaya), mango and pomelo. 

Dragon fruit is an important economic driver for certain areas in Vietnam, such as the Binh Thuan and Long An. Dragon fruit has a big potential to be exported to ‘far away markets' as Europe, Japan and United States.  However, the limited shelf life of dragon fruit is a major constrain to enter these markets. Other fruits also face quality issues, for instance exceeding MRLs (crop protection agents). The project will also target mango farmers in Dong Thap province, and a cluster of pomelo farmers in Ben Tre. The latter provinces are located in the Mekong Delta

In this project YARA Vietnam, Bayer Vietnam, Eurofins (the Netherlands and Vietnam), RMA, LBP, Eijkelkamp established a partnership with the name Vietnam Fruit Force. Trials, demos and training sessions will be the core of the project. The project ends 2023.