Innovative Technology To Improve The Quality Of Mango In The Mekong River Delta For Export Markets And Increase Local Farmers’ Incomes

A Centre of Excellence for harvesting, packing operations, storage and transportation of mangos in the Mekong River Delta was built at Kim Nhung company Ltd. in the province of Dong Thap, applying innovative technologies for conservation and value addition. The Centre has contributed to sharply increasing the incomes of farmers, cooperatives and the company. It also helped extend the mango farming areas and create new jobs for the local community. In addition, the working conditions have significantly improved, especially for women, as did hygiene in the packing house, effectively meeting the requirement of domestic and international clients.

The Kim Nhung company was equipped with a de-sapping tank to prevent sap burn injuries, a brush unit to save water and clean fruit, a hot water spray unit to control post-harvest microbial diseases and a drying machine. The cooling unit, composed of a forced air system and the cold storage systems were installed in the company to maintain harvested mango flesh and lengthen the shelf life of the mangos. As a result, Kim Nhung company has managed to reduce post-harvest loss from 27 per cent of its total production to below 5 per cent. The company’s capacity was increased from 30 tons/day to 50 tons/ day and even 60 tons/day during the peak season. The company also saves its spending on energy thanks to the solar system which provides 40 per cent of the total consumed electricity for the cooling system and 100 per cent of the consumed lighting system. In addition, the company’s organizational and managerial production structure was improved.

The model introduced has demonstrated that by applying appropriate harvest and post-harvest technologies and techniques along the value chain, the supply capacity of Viet Nam’s agro-products can be remarkably increased, providing a model to be replicated to other farming areas and sectors.

The Centre of Excellence was the first model being introduced in the Mekong River Delta under a project implemented by UNIDO to strengthen the supply capacity of Viet Nam’s fruit and vegetable sector by applying proper technologies along the value chain. The project is part of a joint UN Programme: “Support to the National Target programme on New Rural Development” funded by One UN Plan Fund and Finland. The goal of the programme was to support the Government of Viet Nam to improve and modernise agro-based value chain at all stages, including during basic production, processing and marketing.