Transcript Member Economy Voluntary Reports—Vietnam

Member Economy Report
Current status and strategies on Food Losses
in Viet Nam
APEC Seminar on Strengthening Public-Private Partnership to Reduce Food
Losses in the Supply Chain
05 - 08 August 2013 , Chinese Taipei
1
Current Status of Post-harvest Losses in Viet Nam
 Agriculture-based economy: rice is staple food with the total rice growing area of 7.7 million ha
and total food production of c.a. 48.5 million tons (2012); Population: 87 million, 70% of which
living in rural areas.

Agriculture sector also key to sustain growth and reduce poverty: 21,65% of GDP in 2012,
contributing around 24% of export revenue.
 Post-harvest losses are reported to be 1-2% of GDP varying between commodities and
seasons: post-harvest losses of rice (13.7%), other food grains (10%), tubers and roots (10-20%),
fruit and vegetables (20-30%);
 Factors contributing to post-harvest losses: cutting, threshing, drying, storage, pests and
diseases, transport and milling
Stage of production
Rice (%)
Maize (%)
Harvest/cutting
1.3 - 2.9
-
Threshing
1.4 - 2.3
3-4
Drying
1.6 - 1.9
5
Storage
2.6 - 2.9
10
Milling, processing
2.2 - 3.3
2.2 - 3.3
2
Current Status of Post-harvest Losses in Viet Nam
 Average post-harvest losses of rice in Viet Nam:
Stage of production
Losses (%)
Harvest/cutting
1.3 - 1.7
Threshing
1.4 - 1.8
Drying, cleaning
1.9 - 2.1
Transport
1.2 - 1.5
Storage
3.2 - 3.9
Milling
4.5 - 5.0
Total
13 - 16
3
Challenges to Food Loss Reduction
Policy constraints:
 Lack of attractive policy and incentives to promote investment and research in addressing postharvest losses.
Resource constraints:

Financial gap serves as a critical barrier
 Human resources: limited staff with qualification and experiences.
 Technology: lack of appropriate technology to address research and development of post-harvest
losses reduction.
Limited capabilities and involvement of farmers:
 Production dominated by small farmers with limited access to resources and technology.
 Farmers role limited to field operation with little value addition
 Lack of farmer incentives to adopt new technologies
4
Policy and strategy recommendations
for Reducing Food Losses

Conducting comprehensive research and studies for food losses in food system: variety
improvement, post-harvest technology, utilization and marketing
 Support to institutional and policy development: strengthening institutional and policy
framework to enhance agricultural production, agribusiness sector, infrastructure and small scale
enterprises
 Providing a favourable conditions for the delivery of local agricultural services: pesticide fertilizer
use, storage (cold and warehouse), transport, marketing…
 Establishing goals or targets for food loss reduction for a range of target audience (education
campaigns for producers, growers, processors, consumers).
 Developing markets for different grades and types of agricultural products
Strategies:

Focus on strengthening Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SME).
 Private and Public partnership: maximum leverage of private investments with diverse range of
revenues and profitability
 Integrated approach: Production under quality control and management for domestic market and
export.
 Focus on boosting processed goods rather than export of raw materials.
 Objective to engage and enable smallholder producers and thus allowing the whole sector to
advance.
5