Ground-breaking ceremony the complex of Ben Tre green pomelo cooperative

Leaders of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Ambassador of Canada to Vietnam, and other agencies will attend an official ground-breaking ceremony for a new factory of Ben Tre Green Pomelo cooperative.

Members of the cooperative, supported by the Canadian NGO SOCODEVI through the VCED project, are about to get a new multi-functional complex to boost their marketing capacity and improve their livelihood.

Built on an area of more than 4,000 m2 in the centre of the Chau Thanh town, Chau Thanh district, Ben Tre province, the complex will include a display showroom, a preliminary processing area, a processing area, a packaging area, a cooling zone, a warehouse, an input shop, and a cooperative office.

All facilities would serve Coop’s members who are producers of pomelos and other fruits. This is one advanced step after being settle down the safety production at farm household level (no pesticide residue with VietGAP/ GlobalGAP certifications), which satisfied the fresh fruit markets, to utilize the full volume of members’ farms.

The processing complex would follow a “Zero waste” orientation under strict appliance of HACCP standard, to ensure every element of fresh products would be used and transformed into healthy food and environmentally friendly by-products. 

After a successful year of expanding the domestic market, penetrating demanding export markets such as Singapore and Canada, the construction of this new complex is a turning point marking the cooperative's greater efforts to increase trade and production capacities and diversify the products portfolio towards a complete agricultural value chain.

Besides, this multi-functional complex is also included in the strategy of the Ben Tre Green Pomelo Cooperative to encourage large-scale collaboration among cooperatives in the province.

“Supported by the VCED Project, we can say that, Ben Tre Green Pomelo Cooperative is the largest cooperative in Ben Tre province now. We want to not only do business in Vietnam but also export to demanding international markets; not only sell fresh fruits but also produce processed products from fruits. That's why from the very beginning, we started with a plan to build facilities with modern equipment. To be able to build a large complex that meets high technical standards, our main barriers were land and budget.

Fortunately, the local government has supported us in terms of land allocation for construction. And at the same time, we have support from the VCED project in both technical and financial areas. This multi-functional complex will help us to complete our agricultural value chain, boost production and profits. Not only it will serve our members but also increase opportunities to collaborate with other cooperatives by providing them with input materials such as organic and chemical fertiliser and purchasing their outputs (fresh and process products).” – said Nguyen Quoc Bao - Chairman of the Board of Directors of Ben Tre Green Pomelo Cooperative.

The complex is the next step in the plan to upgrade facilities and enhance the competitiveness of cooperatives supported by the VCED project since 2015. Gaby Breton, Co-Director of the Project believes this will be a great push for the development of a new cooperative model in Ben Tre province, in particular, and across the country as a whole.

“As a part of Canadian cooperation in Vietnam, we invest in this facility project, reinforcing the cooperatives principles with respect to biodiversity and the environment. Realizing this factory building plan is a participatory process involving farmers and diverse strategic partners from the beginning of the VCED project. We have received a great contribution from local authorities, from partners like SIAEP (Sub-Institute of Agricultural Engineering and Post-Harvest Technology) and other consultancy services (labs, institutes, etc.)  in terms of technical advisory and knowledge transfer, human resources training.

Besides, with the financial as well as technical assistance from Global Affairs Canada and Canadian Cooperatives through SOCODEVI, the VCED project could contribute to the development of Ben Tre province, which is a land of tremendous agricultural potential. After years of improving agriculture techniques that integrate climate change adaptation measures, we believe, Ben Tre Green Pomelo Cooperative can bring more benefit to thousands of farmers-members in the future with this new factory. 

The processing plants would transform safe fresh fruits into healthy juices with the Mekong flavours. We hope that VCED’s national stakeholders like MARD and MPI can use this as a business case for replicating in other provinces throughout the country in the path of developing the cooperative economy in Vietnam.” - said Gaby Breton, Co-Director of the VCED Project.

It’s another milestone for the Canadian cooperation in Vietnam. The ground-breaking ceremony will be honoured by the attendance of the Ambassador of Canada to Vietnam. During this two-day visit, H.E. Ambassador Deborah Paul will have meetings with some farmer-households of the Ben Tre Green Pomelo Cooperative and with representatives of ministries and agencies to strengthen the bilateral relationship between Canada and Vietnam.

“Over the last two decades, Canadian expertise has helped support Vietnam’s cooperative sector and improve inclusive economic growth. With Canada’s support, the Green Pomelo Cooperative in Ben Tre is better integrated into global value chains, and has improved its governance.  This new complex will help lay the foundation for the cooperative’s future development, and, in turn, help improve the livelihoods of men and women farmers in Ben Tre.”– said H.E. Deborah Paul, Ambassador of Canada to Vietnam.

Being one of five cooperatives supported by the VCED project, the Ben Tre Green Pomelo Cooperative is pushing efforts to strengthen its agricultural value chain in order to maximize profits for farmers-members and management towards a sustainable development for the cooperative itself as well as other cooperatives in the province.

The Vietnam Cooperative Enterprise Development (VCED) project is funded by the Government of Canada through Global Affairs Canada, jointly implemented by SOCODEVI and School of Management for Agriculture and Rural Development II (CMARD II) under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. 

More than 10.000 families are supported through this initiative. The project aims to improve the livelihoods of women and men, through the development of agricultural value chains within the new inclusive and sustainable cooperative model.

The VCED project helps increase the cooperatives’ competitiveness through a variety of activities such as farmers’ training, coop governance strengthening, equipment upgrading, marketing, and branding, etc. Up to now, the cooperatives supported by the project have made certain achievements with modern and safe cultivation methods that follow VietGAP/GlobalGAP standards and, especially, always integrate with environmental protection.

Besides, there is a notable improvement in essential issues such as gender equality, as the number of female members and leaders continues to increase, and more women are confident to participate in livelihood activities. 

SOCODEVI is a Canadian NGO, created in 1985 from the desire of the local cooperative and mutualist network to put into practice one of the founding principles of cooperativism: intercooperation. 

Since then, SOCODEVI contributed to improving the living conditions of families in more than 40 developing countries by supporting the creation and strengthening of inclusive, autonomous, profitable, sustainable, and innovative cooperatives. Consolidation of value chains, capacity building, gender equality and adaptation to climate change constitute the essence of the interventions. 

SOCODEVI has worked in Vietnam for 20 years, contributing to the country’s sustainable socio-economic development. Since 2015, as the implementing partner for the VCED project, SOCODEVI has supported the cooperatives in Vietnam to build and upgrade facilities and equipment with special funding from the SOCODEVI Foundation.