Promoting Center of Excellence for Harvesting, packing operations, storage and transport of mango

Mango is one of the key fruit trees in the Mekong Delta. With a total area of 43,000 hectares and an output of 500,000 tons / year, mango has become one of the main income sources in the Mekong Delta. The Cat Hoa Loc mango and Cat Chu mango are two varieties with high quality and market potential in markets like Korea, Japan, Chinaand Russia.. However, the post harvest loss at 27% rate is very high.

About 120 participants attended the workshop. They came from 13 provinces in the Mekong River Delta, representing enterprises, farmers, cooperatives, policy makers, scientists, researchers and international experts.

Mr. Nguyen Thanh Hung Vice Chairman of the Dong Thap People's Committee said that of 13 provinces in the Mekong River Delta, Dong Thap province has the biggest area of mango planting with 9,200 ha, with an estimated annual output of 95,000 tons. Mango is one of the five key crops in the province.

At the workshop, Mr. Peter Jonhson and Mr. Peter Delinicolas, international experts, analyzed the reasons of the high post harvest losses, 27% on average), shared the information about world mango export markets as well as opportunities for Vietnam, and provided advice on how to build a modern mango export system for Vietnam.

Mr. Karl Schebesta, UNIDO project manager introduced an approach to strengthen the mango value chain through introducing a Center of Excellence. He said, "The center proposes appropriate models and upgraded technologies to improve the quality of agricultural products, reduce post-harvest losses, improve the organizational and managerial production structure in rural areas All these are key elements allowing to increase the income and improve the livelihood of smalholder farmers and their families."

The Center of Excellence for mango harvesting, packing operations, storage and transport was set-up in close cooperation with Kim Nhung Company located in Cao Lanh city of Dong Thap province. It will also serve as a model for replication and upscaling.

With the support of the Project through the Center of Excellence, and cofinancing By Kim Nhung company the company has improved its capacity from 15-20 tons/day to up to 60 tons/day. The post-harvest loss rate at the 300 participating farms and the packing house has been reduced by 50% from 30% to 15%in total.

Mr. Nguyen Minh Tien, representative of the MARD highly appreciated the Center of Excellence and said this proves that applying proper post-harvest technology along the value chain is the solution to develop agro industry. He believed this Center can be scaled up and applied for other agro value chains also in other provinces of Viet Nam

At the workshop the representatives from UNIDO, MARD also signed a Hand-over Agreement of the Center with the beneficiary Kim Nhung Company.