Will Japanese high-tech save Vietnamese agriculture?

Japan once notorious for its high tech electronics industry has been transforming agriculture with that same ingenuity and drive, providing Vietnamese farmers a ground floor opportunity to jump on the bandwagon.

Not only have food prices in Japan and around the globe been steadily increasing, but consumers now closely examine how and where their vegetables have been produced and only choose organically certified.

Other consumers have become more inclined to purchase technologically altered fruits and vegetables, such as low potassium lettuce that is edible even if you have kidney failure or square watermelons, which save space— but to emerge victorious in these markets require strict quality control standards.

As a case on point, Tran Nguyen Ho in Chau Thanh district, Tien Giang province said after visiting his bird farm in 2013, a Japanese firm asked him to supply bird eggs for a processing factory in Tien Giang province making products for export to Japan.

The firm committed to sign a long term contract at a highly lucrative price upon the condition that Ho give up his traditional methods and apply a new model in line with Japanese standards and not under any conditions revert to using antibiotics.

Ho said he was skeptical at first because birds are very sensitive to climate changes and rather easily become sick if they are not administered antibiotics. In fact, he lost 200,000 birds in early 2013 at a cost of nearly VND1 billion.

After securing the assistance of the Japanese experts he finally succeeded.

It took a bit of trial and error but he managed to find the proper diet for the birds so that they could have both good resistance and productively lay eggs meeting Japanese standards. Finally in late 2013, the Japanese firm agreed to purchase his eggs.

Jumping ahead to early 2015, Ho’s farm is now exporting more than 20 million bird eggs to Japan annually and his business is thriving. Now he continues to invest in expanding his farm.

As another example, Nguyen Thanh Nhon, Chairman of the Hoa Loc Mango Corporative in Cai Be district, Tien Giang province said at first all cooperative members were afraid they would not be able to meet Japan’s strict  criteria on the quality of mango.

However, thanks to farmers’ great effort and strong determination to follow the Japanese requirements, mangoes were finally accepted for shipment to Japan. Over the past 10 years, the corporative has exported on average roughly 100 tonnes of fresh mangoes annually.

Furthermore, frozen pineapples of one business in Tien Giang province were certified for export to Japan after the Japanese firm made a fact-finding tour to a cultivation zone to check production and processing process and evaluated food hygiene and safety criteria.

A Giang Plant Protection JSC in turn has successfully organized a circle production chain to produce high-quality rice for export to Japan. It has coordinated with farmers to build a concentrated material zone, named Vinh Binh, to comply with Japanese standards.

The company director Nguyen Tien Dung said it has to meet 593 criteria proposed by the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture to ensure the health of users.

Abe Kengo, a representative from Iwate Prefecture business delegation, said Japan is in high demand for importing prawn shrimp from Ben Tre province. He promised to transfer technology to Ben Tre farmers in order to help them meet Japanese market’s requirements.

Kazuyoshi Yuasa, a Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) expert who worked at the Southern Fruit Research Institute from 2009-2014 said dragon fruit, rambutan, durian, and mangosteen are delicious fruit that have attracted consumers.

Vietnamese fruits are delicious but to satisfy the world market they must be produced according to Global GAP or VietGAP standards because ‘safe for health’ is the number one priority for all products.

Secondly, Vietnamese farmers should pay more attention to design and flavour, Yuasa said.

In October 2014, a delegation from Ibaraki Prefecture worked with Dong Thap leaders. After tasting Hoa Loc and Cat Chu mangoes, Ibaraki Governor Hashimoto Masaru committed to help train plantation, post-harvest preservation and processing techniques to Dong Thap agricultural officials.

Last but not least, Pham Van Du, Deputy Head of the Plantation Department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said that since 1985 Japan has sent many experts to Vietnam to support research and increased production of rice and fruit.

Their consultation and input has been attributable to agricultural achievements in the Mekong Delta region and has brought about long-term benefits as it does not cause environment pollution due to limited use of pesticides.

To spur development of modern agriculture, Vietnamese farmers are encouraged to cooperate with Japanese partners to produce rice and fruit and breed livestock, Du concluded.

It is obvious that the future of agriculture is changing and Japanese technology firms with their entrepreneurship, tenacity and proven track record in high tech are setting the trend for the future of the industry.

Now the question we all need to ask as Vietnamese citizens is this: What are we doing to catch the trend?

(VOV)