Improve the economic efficiency of industrial crops

(Baonghean) - Nghe An is a province with abundant potential for industrial crop development, with a variety of products such as sugarcane, pineapple, tea, rubber, etc. Currently, the source of raw materials for production has basically met the needs for processing, preservation and consumption. However, in the long term, when more areas are put into new exploitation, the province and businesses need to prepare, build more or increase the capacity of existing factories and processing facilities.

Lack of linkage in production and consumption

Compared to the "golden age", the pineapple area in the province has now decreased significantly, from over 3,000 hectares to 800 hectares. However, although the area has decreased, there are still many difficulties and shortcomings in processing, preserving and consuming. These days, the pineapple harvest season in Tan Thang and Quynh Chau communes (Quynh Luu) is in full swing, people harvest both grass pineapple and cayen pineapple, but mostly green pineapple for sale. Mr. Nguyen Van Sam (Hamlet 2B - Quynh Chau commune) said: My family grows 7 sao of pineapple, with an average yield of 3.5 - 4 tons/sao, but because the factory limits purchases, we have to sell green pineapple at a cheap price, because if the pineapple ripens and cannot be sold, it will rot. Since the beginning of the month, there has been a lot of rain in the area, so the pineapples have rotted quite a lot, it is estimated that each sao has rotted about 150 - 200 kg of pineapple, causing considerable damage. Not only growers, but also pineapple traders are facing difficulties. Ms. Tran Thi Minh (Quynh Tam commune) shared: Recently, she bought about 300 kg of ripe pineapples and set up a stall along the road to sell them, but she couldn't sell them in time, so 50 kg of them rotted.

According to pineapple growers, in the past, pineapple processing factory technicians often instructed people to use chemicals to prolong the ripening time of pineapples, but now people have to figure it out on their own, so they hardly know how to preserve them. Quynh Luu district currently has over 600 hectares of pineapples in the peak harvest season. Faced with the situation of not being able to sell them in time, the pineapples will rot and spoil, so measures need to be taken to preserve them after harvest. According to pineapple preservation standards, after harvesting, preliminary sorting, selecting intact fruits and putting them in a cool warehouse with a temperature of 10-12oC for green pineapples, 7-8oC for pineapples that have just started to ripen, with a humidity of 85-90%, they can be preserved for 2-3 weeks. However, in our province, because the pineapple factory limits purchases, most people have to take care of the output and preserve the products themselves.

In general, industrial crop products in the province such as coffee, tea, sugarcane, passion fruit and pineapple have basically met the processing requirements. The whole province has over 5,000 hectares of tea for business, the products are consumed by factories and mini processing furnaces. Currently, over 3,000 hectares of rubber have been exploited, most of which belong to the areas of Song Hieu and Xuan Thanh single-member LLCs... all of which have their own processing facilities, proactively solving the source of raw materials. Similarly, products of other crops such as pineapple, passion fruit... have been put into preservation and processing. However, there are still many shortcomings surrounding this issue.

Growing raw rubber in Thanh Duc commune (Thanh Chuong).

Except for rubber and a part of tea trees, the remaining industrial crops today, the processing facilities are not completely linked to the raw material areas, but the raw material areas are separate, the processing facilities are separate, and belong to different owners. The consumption linkage in the past has not been really effective, there are still phenomena of competing to buy, compete to sell, and price pressure; sometimes farmers in the raw material areas refuse to sell to businesses, sell outside to get "fresh money" or higher prices, sometimes businesses do not buy everything from farmers during the harvest season. This more or less affects the improvement of product quality because the quality of raw materials is not really of interest to people.

Mr. Nguyen Van Tri - Director of Ngoc Lam - Thanh Chuong Tea Enterprise said: The enterprise has a raw material area of ​​over 300 hectares of tea in Thanh An and Thanh Thuy communes. However, despite signing contracts, there are many cases where people do not comply and sell outside at higher prices. Therefore, at times, due to lack of raw materials, the enterprise has to accept buying tea that is not harvested according to standards, affecting the quality of the products. "Overexploitation, chasing after products and immediate profits like that, in addition to the consequences that some tea areas have died or cannot develop, the thorough exploitation of tea gardens is unsustainable, more dangerous, in the long run it will affect the Nghe An tea brand" - Mr. Tri worried. Besides, it can be seen that the processing lines of industrial crop products in the province still have many shortcomings, outdated technology, so the product quality is not high, the export price is low. It is considered a vicious cycle when product prices are low, businesses are forced to buy raw materials at low prices, leading to farmers not caring about improving the quality of raw materials...

Solutions to improve the efficiency of industrial crops

To improve the efficiency of industrial crops, the first solution is to continue reviewing planning, closely linking raw material planning with processing facilities, not allowing the situation where enterprises do not have raw material areas but build processing facilities, causing a situation of shortage of raw materials and competition to buy and vice versa, especially for tea products. Currently, with crops such as sugarcane and rubber, factories have been built attached to raw material areas, but with tea, the situation is still chaotic. In addition, localities and sectors need to strengthen inspection and handling of small-scale production facilities that do not ensure food hygiene and safety, poor product quality, and disputes over raw material areas.

In particular, according to Mr. Nguyen Van Lap - Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, it is necessary to properly resolve the linkage in production, processing and consumption of products. Enterprises that have been planned by the province for raw material areas produced by farmers, have processing facilities and factories, must implement the signing of contracts with producers in accordance with the direction of Decision 62 (replacing Decision 80) of the Prime Minister. This is considered the most crucial step to link raw material areas with processing facilities. During the implementation of the contract, enterprises and farmers must be loyal to each other, when prices fluctuate, there must be reasonable discussions and agreements, both sides benefit, and at the same time be loyal to the planned crops, avoiding the situation of arbitrary cutting down when it is not effective at certain times.

Enterprises must also continue to renovate, upgrade, and apply scientific and technological advances, moving towards having factories that produce and process more "refined" products, using less raw materials but with higher product prices and greater efficiency. Mr. Nguyen Van Tri - Director of Ngoc Lam Tea Enterprise added: In addition to the CTC black tea production line, the unit has recently invested 5 billion VND to import a green tea production line with modern technology, the product meets the strict requirements of the export market. These are encouraging signs and need to be replicated. And along with that, an extremely important solution is that raw material production areas must focus on applying scientific and technological advances in varieties and intensive farming in production to both improve productivity, quality, and reduce product costs so that businesses and people can both make a profit, thereby remaining loyal to the raw material area. Currently, only 5,000/8,000 hectares of tea are put into business in the province, and 3,000/8,000 hectares of rubber have been put into exploitation. Enterprises need to have plans to build more processing factories to meet the demand when the remaining area is qualified for exploitation.

To do that, state agencies, especially local authorities, need to further strengthen the management of the implementation of approved plans, direct specialized departments and offices to transfer and guide the implementation of scientific and technological advances to farmers. Help businesses and farmers properly implement contracts, resolve disputes, strengthen inspection and supervision, and strictly handle units and individuals who do not comply with state regulations on investment in construction of production and processing facilities for industrial crops. Raw material areas for processing are mainly located in mountainous areas, where people's lives are still difficult. Therefore, the State needs to have appropriate mechanisms and policies so that businesses can confidently invest in building raw material areas, transferring scientific and technological advances, and consuming products for people.

Phu Huong