FAVRI meets export-standard fruit and vegetable preservation technologies

End-of-season Thieu lychee shipments to Europe

Under the nearly 40oC heat, in FAVRI’s corrugated iron roof house, Deputy Director, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Hoang Thi Le Hang, had come down to the workshop to encourage officials and employees of the Institute in the preliminary process for end-of-season Thieu lychee batch to be timely exported to the UK on July 5th.

"We preliminary process and preserve Thieu lychee in particular and agricultural products in general depending on the export market. For example, this batch of Thieu lychees go by air, the preservation time is only about 7-10 days, much less than going by sea. Therefore, preliminary processing technology must satisfy the requirements," said Deputy Director Hoang Thi Le Hang.

Thieu lychees, after being harvested from Luc Ngan district (Bac Giang), are packed in styrofoam boxes, then transported directly to FAVRI. The lychees have their stalk cut neatly, washed several times with clean water, then soaked in disinfectant solution.

Clean lychees are picked up again to an ice bath and soaked for about an hour to lower the temperature. Since they continue to breathe and release heat during pre-processing and storage, the temperature in the ice bath will be constantly checked.

When the temperature drops below 5oC, lychees will be taken out, packed in a 1 kg plastic box and imprinted with traceability stamps. At this point, the preliminary processing and preservation stage has been completed. The lychees will be packed in foam boxes and put in cold storage.

"FAVRI has researched the preservation and processing technology under a closed chain model, from the selection and breeding stages, farming techniques, post-harvest preservation and finding output markets. Our goal is to create products that sell well in the market, making it easy for farmers to consume agricultural products.

Along with fresh fruits processing and preservation, FAVRI’s other direction is to process agricultural products to serve the domestic market. Thanks to the technology transfer of the Institute, cooperatives have put agricultural products on the shelves of many big supermarket chains such as Big C, Circle K, Hapro...”

(Assoc. Prof. Dr. Hoang Thi Le Hang)

Concentrate on research on deep processing

According to the Ministry of Science and Technology, Vietnam's agricultural product processing and preservation capacity is currently about 100 million tons of raw materials a year. However, Vietnam's agricultural product processing technology is still limited. Products with low added value account for a large proportion, and the types are not diverse.

There are approximately 150 fruit and vegetable processing enterprises nationwide, accounting for more than 2% of the number of enterprises operating in the agricultural sector. The average capacity of this bloc is estimated at more than 4% of total agricultural output, much lower than other countries in the region and the world.

Processing agricultural products under modern, high-capacity production lines is what constantly weighs the mind of every researcher at FAVRI.

Thanks to the guarantee of revenue, FAVRI has transferred many typical technologies such as new-technology wine production, modified starch production, wastewater treatment… Regarding scientific services, the Institute has conducted analysis and assessment for raw materials, food and livestock products. For production organization, the Institute currently has 28 reputable food and functional foods products on the market, which are accepted and trusted by consumers, with revenue continuously increasing.

As one of many businesses supported by the Fruit and Vegetable Research Institute, Fusa Organic Agriculture JSC has brought lychees to penetrate the European market. As shared by Mr. Vu Ngoc Canh, Director of Fusa, FAVRI’s advice is always very practical for businesses. Thanks to the support from the Institute, the company's export shipments have satisfied all the strict standards in the fastidious market...