Building durian material areas that meet export standards

Thien Tam Agricultural Products Trading Co., Ltd. has just met with the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Tien Giang province and the People's Committee of Cai Lay district to agree on building a link between durian production and consumption.

Improve the durian quality for export

Thien Tam Agricultural Products Trading Co., Ltd was approved by the General Administration of Customs of the People's Republic of China with export code VN - TGPH-809 to officially export durian products to this country.

According to Thien Tam Company, this is an opportunity and a great challenge for export companies and the company in particular. Therefore, Thien Tam Company wishes to build a material area that meets export standards. Specifically, the business will link up with 131 households with a total area of more than 100 hectares in Cai Lay district.

According to Le Minh Tam, Director of Thien Tam Agricultural Products Trading Co., Ltd., the company will build a large area of raw materials meeting export standards, focusing on applying care techniques, adaptive climate, and good agricultural practices to improve durian quality.

"Implement a digital transformation program by updating electronic diaries and applying a traceability system to the raw material area. Deployment of hanging signs with codes of growing areas, packing facilities, and VietGAP certification.

Households in the associated area will reach 100% of households registered to participate in VietGAP certification, good agricultural production practice. All households digitally converted with proficient software to update the farming diary and hung a signboard with the code of the growing area for monitoring purposes on the digital conversion system. In particular, 90% of durian products in the growing area meet export standards," said Tam, adding that the business was established in 2019 and is a unit that has been operating for a long time and has a good reputation in the durian industry.

However, in the process of official export, there were many problems with product quality. Therefore, Thien Tam Company wants to build a material area according to VietGAP standards to control from input to bringing the products to consumers.

"When linking businesses, they will support training on plant care techniques in each specific period. For the digitization of planting areas, companies will work with authorities to train people on reporting software.

"In particular, when people cannot use it, Thien Tam Company will arrange for staff to enter information instead. For the planting area code, the enterprise will coordinate with the people to carry out the procedures to apply for the code.

"At the end of the project, the importing country will require an area of standard raw materials. When participating, people will gradually get used to updating electronic diaries, making it transparent from the production stage," added Tam.

Create all conditions for enterprises to build raw material areas

Vo Van Men, Head of the Sub-Department of Cultivation and Plant Protection of Tien Giang province, said that the locality welcomes creating all conditions for Thien Tam Company to build links in growing areas for export.

However, Men also asked Thien Tam Company to determine the area and quantity, invite people to participate in the chain, and agree on building the material area.

“The association will help increase the application of science and technology to farming, thereby increasing the quality of agricultural products for export. The unit will support the establishment of the project and will have a mechanism to support the development of standard planting areas. The government will propagate and persuade people to participate in the model and comply with the regulations when implementing VietGAP," Men said.

Men said the locality is implementing solutions to improve the quality of durian exports. Specifically, how to maintain the planting area code. Issuing a planting area code is complex and even more challenging to maintain. Therefore, the Sub-Department will strengthen training and supervision of planting areas and packing facilities.

“The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development has sent a written request to the Southern Fruit Tree Institute to determine the durian harvest time so that the unit can issue propaganda documents for people to cut the right date and age. The Sub-Department has also strengthened training and guidance for people to handle pests and diseases that China requires.

"The inspection, supervision, and improvement of durian quality at this time require the participation of authorities, especially businesses. The locality is gradually improving durian quality to serve export sustainably,” Men said.