What direction for Vinh orange brand?

(Baonghean) - The Vinh orange brand has existed and been preserved forever because of the quality of the products that orange growers have painstakingly cared for. However, the output for the Vinh orange brand is a difficult problem to solve, when Vinh oranges have not been labeled and are being counterfeited.

Chinese oranges "disguised" as Vinh oranges

When the cold weather comes, the people of Nghe An can enjoy the sweet, nutritious taste of oranges, long known as Vinh oranges. This season, you can see oranges everywhere, oranges at traditional retail markets, oranges on supermarket stalls, oranges on trucks parked along the roadside. Although there are many, the price of oranges is not cheap, ranging from 30,000 to 50,000 VND, depending on the type of orange. And most of them are guaranteed by retailers "Quỳ Hợp oranges are genuine!"

According to public opinion, there are currently oranges from other regions on the market, which do not guarantee quality, but are still mixed in with Vinh oranges. And no one can distinguish between Vinh oranges and oranges from other regions. To find the origin of the oranges, we went to the wholesale market.

At 2am, at Vinh market, orange trucks were already crowded on Cao Thang street, which was previously reserved for the Western fruit market. The carefully packed cardboard boxes were unloaded from the trucks by the vendors, the ripe oranges were neatly sorted, thought to be oranges from Nghia Dan or Quy Hop, but observing that the vendors only quoted the price from 11-14 thousand VND/kg, half the retail price of oranges at the markets. It turned out that they were Ha Giang oranges, Chinese oranges, the owner Nguyen Phi Long said: "We imported these oranges from Ha Giang, that's why they have that price". Wondering why they chose oranges from the farthest reaches of the country instead of prioritizing their own oranges, Mr. Long said: "Ha Giang oranges are only 1/3 the price of Vinh oranges, so retailers prefer them to buy them for retail."

Of the 7 trucks, only 2 trucks carrying Quy Hop oranges and Nghia Dan oranges have their parking and unloading locations secretly decided by traders. Wholesale Quy Hop oranges, parked deep inside, are not cheap, ranging from 30,000 to 45,000 VND/kg (depending on the fruit model). Every night, the owner imports from Quy Hop traders from 4 to 5 tons, sometimes they sell out but sometimes they have a few hundred thousand left over, to sell retail during the day. Mr. Nguyen Van Quan, a wholesale fruit trader at Vinh market, said: "I have been trading Quy Hop oranges for 7 years now, and mostly import for a few familiar customers. Although this orange is expensive, when eating the orange, people immediately know its address. It's just a pity that when it is sold retail, in many places, people mix it with Ha Giang oranges or Chinese oranges, causing losses to consumers." Mr. Binh, who has been buying from him for 5 years, added: “We have to use orange filler to make a profit. If we don’t use filler, the buyer has to pay a high price of 45-55 thousand VND/kg. Usually, we only sell to big customers. Most people only buy at 30-35 thousand VND/kg, which is also the price we sell at.”

Solution for Vinh orange brand?

Why has Vinh orange been registered for trademark protection since 2010 but has no label? When questioning this with the state management agency, Mr. Hoang Van Tam - Deputy Director of the Department of Science and Technology said: "The consumption of orange brand products has been done by the manufacturers who have been granted geographical indications, we only manage the state side."

Following Mr. Tam's words, we went to Phu Quy land, which is considered the capital of Vinh orange brand. The winding red dirt road led us to Co Do Farm - Nghia Dan, which since the 70s of the last century has been famous as an orange warehouse for export to Eastern European countries with an output of up to 4 to 5 thousand tons/year. At that time, the entire farm land was planted with oranges, every family became rich from oranges, and wherever the farm workers went, they were granted landowner titles thanks to the oranges they grew that were exported everywhere, bringing a considerable profit to the plot owners... When asked about Vinh oranges being registered for trademark protection, and whether Co Do Farm oranges are the orange area that receives benefits from the geographical indication of Vinh oranges? Mr. Nguyen Minh Hoa - Deputy Director of the Farm said: "We have invested in growing techniques to produce the most beautiful fruit samples, but currently people are having to sell them at the source at a cheap price, only 1/3 of the market price. And we have not been guided on joining the Vinh Orange Association yet." Mr. Hoa led us to the orange batch in the harvest season. Ms. Le Thi Huong of Production Team No. 2, the owner of the batch, said: "Currently, we only sell them for 7,000 VND/kg, but when we go to the market, we see people selling them for 30,000 VND/kg. I don't understand why the oranges on our farm are of such good quality but the price has dropped so miserably!"

Ms. Nguyen Thi Huong (Production Team No. 2, Co Do Farm) talked with reporters about the orange growing process.

To have a bumper crop of oranges, in addition to favorable weather conditions, farmers must strictly follow the strict process of orange growing techniques all year round and bear high input costs for fertilizers. The soil must always have a stable pH, rich in alkalinity to create sugar for the fruit. To do so, when the oranges bloom, lime must be applied to neutralize the acid. They must constantly watch out for pests and diseases that harm leaves and fruit, so as not to produce bad, less sweet fruit. However, having a bumper crop of oranges does not necessarily mean that farmers have high profits because through many intermediary levels, the oranges are sold by farmers at only 1/5 of the price that traders sell to consumers.

Nghia Dan oranges are sweet and fragrant, but when they are introduced to the market, they are far inferior to their Quy Hop counterparts because Quy Hop oranges are bigger, more beautiful, and are better known by word of mouth among sellers. So even though these are Nghia Dan oranges of good quality, sellers still claim that they are "Quy Hop oranges".

Mr. Nguyen Viet Minh - Deputy Director of Xuan Thanh LLC - the owner of the Vinh Orange Ownership Registration Project, said: "Since being granted the geographical indication for the Vinh orange brand, we have enjoyed many benefits, from being trained in high-yield orange growing techniques, to the orange brand being widely promoted and trusted by many consumers. Therefore, from the Quy Hop oranges that used to cost only 5-7 thousand VND/kg, now people have earned up to 40-50 thousand VND/kg in some batches, and in particular, some orange trees that can be grown until Tet are priced at 80-90 thousand VND/kg."

Following that attractive advertisement, we went to the billionaire orange garden Nghi - Minh. The large oranges are all ripe and red, and it is harvest season. Nghi Minh's family's oranges are famous throughout the region for their sweet, rich, aromatic flavor and attractive appearance. The price of oranges here is up to 42 - 45 thousand VND/kg, in previous years during the Lunar New Year, the owner could sell them for 80 - 90 thousand VND/kg. In addition to "eating and sleeping with oranges" of Mr. Minh and Ms. Nghi, the benefit from the geographical indication of Vinh oranges has helped their batch of oranges have better quality than previous years.

Vinh oranges have a brand name and are popular with consumers, so they are often imitated and confused by oranges from other regions. In reality, there is no way to distinguish Vinh oranges from oranges from other regions. So, can labeling be a professional way to distinguish a branded fruit? According to Mr. Minh, the company has a label sample, but labeling is not feasible because there may be orange gardens that do not meet quality standards but are still labeled. The process of testing the quality of oranges to be labeled is very time-consuming and laborious. And labeling is only meaningful when oranges are sold at the farm's agents, but currently Xuan Thanh farm is still unable to do that.

Since being granted geographical indication for Vinh orange brand, Xuan Thanh Company Limited has established Vinh Orange Brand Association which is the place to register the protection rights of Vinh oranges of other farms such as: Farm 1/5, Co Do (Nghia Dan), orange gardens in Con Cuong and Tan Ky districts where people everywhere still call Vinh oranges. To achieve the Vinh orange brand, it is necessary to adhere to the following criteria: The fruit must be large, the color must be beautiful and the sweetness must be of good quality, and the yield must be from 40-50 tons/ha...

The vicious cycle of buyers having to look for Vinh oranges while orange growers want them to reach consumers has been going on for many years and will continue if there is no real movement from managers.

PV Group