Strengths of agricultural processing in Dong Thap

Processing agricultural products at Thabico Tien Giang Food Industry Joint Stock Company.

Key processing industries have been formed in association with the region's strong products such as: seafood (pangasius), rice, fruits (durian, mango, dragon fruit, longan, jackfruit), lotus... Of which, the locality has more than 200 rice processing enterprises, with a total capacity of 4.5 to 5 million tons/year; 25 fruit processing enterprises, with a total capacity of about 700 thousand tons/year; nearly 48 seafood processing enterprises, with a capacity of about 640 thousand tons/year.

Abundant raw materials

To solve the output for local agricultural products as well as create jobs for women in her hometown, Ms. Nguyen Thi Minh Thy, Director of Bac My Thuan Production, Trade and Service Limited Liability Company, An Huu Commune, Dong Thap Province, "left the city" to return to her hometown to start a business with dried fruit. Through perseverance and constant efforts, she successfully started a business with dried fruit products under the brand name BamoFood.

Talking to us, Ms. Nguyen Thi Minh Thy said: “Once when I went back to my hometown, I saw a lot of ripe mangoes falling and remembered the dried mango and banana dishes my grandmother used to make. I peeled and dried the mangoes and gave them to my relatives and friends. Everyone who ate them praised them as delicious. From there, I came up with the idea of producing dried mangoes to let more people know about them and bring Hoa Loc mangoes further. When I saw positive feedback from the market and many orders, I stepped up production.”

When she grasped the strengths of dried mango, she invested in machinery, technology and opened a factory to produce. The products are guaranteed to be sugar-free, color-free, and preservative-free. After many startups, she has accumulated experience from practice and learned from experts, so the quality and design of the products have been increasingly improved, and there are many large orders.

After the dried mango product, she experimented with drying Siamese banana, custard apple, pineapple, dragon fruit... and all were well received by the market. Up to now, her company has developed 8 types of dried fruits such as: Hoa Loc mango, Siamese banana, guava, dragon fruit... Among the dried fruit products, Hoa Loc mango and dragon fruit are the company's two main products. Each year, the company supplies the market with about 50 tons of various types of dried fruits, equivalent to about 500 tons of raw materials.

Thabico Tien Giang Food Industry Joint Stock Company is one of the typical enterprises in processing agricultural products for export in Dong Thap province. Every year, the enterprise processes and exports tens of thousands of tons of various agricultural products.

Mr. Nguyen Minh Tuan, Director of the company, said that specialized agricultural processing is a specialized industry, requiring high technology, strict control procedures, and demanding customer groups; and fierce price competition pressure with Asian and South American countries. However, the company clearly determined that if Vietnamese agricultural products are not only exported raw but can go further, reaching higher-standard, more sustainable markets, systematic investment in processing technology is a mandatory step.

Currently, Thabico Tien Giang uses the entire IQF processing and super-fast freezing line. This technology can process 60 thousand tons of agricultural products/year, helping to preserve the flavor and nutritional value of the products.

Products from agricultural processing prepared for export at Thabico Tien Giang Food Industry Joint Stock Company.

Processing freeze-dried vegetables, tubers and fruits, this enterprise uses Dutch technology, with a capacity of 4,500 tons of agricultural products/year. Regarding the processing of concentrated fruit juice, it uses Italian technology, allowing the recovery of flavor from evaporation to concentrate the fruit, ensuring the highest quality, with a capacity of 10,000 tons of agricultural products/year...

In the coming time, Thabico Tien Giang will focus on developing raw material areas to trace the origin, cultivate with less pollution, use organic fertilizers moderately and use water effectively; invest in energy-saving processing technology, limit loss and optimize agricultural waste; carry out social responsibility with farmers and local communities.

Priority given to the development of agricultural processing industry

In recent times, the province has proactively called for investment, creating an attractive environment for agricultural processing enterprises. It has organized many conferences to promote and advertise its potential and issued preferential policies on land, credit, human resource training, etc. to attract investors.

Director of the Department of Agriculture and Environment of Dong Thap province Le Ha Luan said that after the merger, Dong Thap province has the advantage of a large-scale general planning, with dozens of industrial parks and processing industrial clusters arranged and abundant clean land fund; currently there are hundreds of projects calling for investment, creating greater attraction for businesses. Thanks to the favorable environment, many large-scale projects in the field of deep processing have been implemented in the area. Preliminary processing facilities and cold storage of agricultural products at the Sa Dec, Thuong Phuoc, and Go Cong port clusters have contributed to the formation of a regional logistics - processing center.

The processing plant projects that have come into operation have brought about very positive effects on both the production and consumption of agricultural products. First of all, thanks to the processing plant, the output of agricultural products is more stable, helping to stably consume local agricultural products, reducing the situation of "rescuing" crops.

A typical example is the vegetable and coconut processing factory of Thabico Tien Giang Food Industry Joint Stock Company, with a scale of 4.8 hectares, capacity of 120,000 tons/year, applying modern IQF quick freezing technology.

Besides, there are large enterprises such as: Go Dang, Van Duc, Vinh Hoan, Vinh Hoan collagen; Hung Ca, Phat Tien (aquatic products); Chon Chinh, Vinarice, Co May, Ricegrower, Viet Hung (rice); T&H, Chu Chin, Westernfarm, Song Nhi, Ecolotus, Sen Dai Viet, Ba Tre (mango, lotus fruits)...

According to comrade Le Ha Luan, thanks to the development of processing, the proportion of processed agricultural products is increasing, gradually reducing low-value raw exports. The value of products is improved and designs are more diverse. Many items that were previously just by-products such as catfish fat and rice bran have now been processed into valuable export products such as fish oil, rice bran oil, collagen, etc. High-quality processed products have expanded the consumption market for local agricultural products, reaching even demanding markets.

Modern processing technology at Thabico Tien Giang Food Industry Joint Stock Company.

Notably, many businesses have invested in advanced, modern technology, helping to improve product quality and international competitiveness. Technologies being applied include: IQF quick freezing technology, irradiation, heat treatment, vacuum and modified atmosphere packaging in preserving fresh agricultural products; color separation, automatic classification, rice polishing with optical sensors in the milling industry; biofilm technology to preserve fruit combined with ethylene absorption to help extend storage time...

Thanks to the application of modern technology, processed agricultural products are increasingly diverse, meeting the standards of many demanding markets such as the United States, EU, Japan, and Korea. The processing industry not only helps reduce the pressure of seasonal consumption but also motivates businesses and farmers to invest in improving the quality of raw material areas, aiming to form a closed, effective and sustainable value chain.

Director of the Department of Agriculture and Environment of Dong Thap province Le Ha Luan

To strongly develop the agricultural processing industry and promote investment attraction, Dong Thap province plans to turn the locality into one of the leading agricultural processing centers in the Mekong Delta, creating an open investment environment; attracting deep processing and high-tech projects; developing sustainable raw material areas, investing in logistics infrastructure for processing, developing human resources, etc.

According to nhandan.vn

Source: https://baoapbac.vn/kinh-te/202508/the-manh-che-bien-nong-san-o-dong-thap-1047835/