Ministry of Agriculture & Rural Development

037/04VIE

Developing GAP systems for dragon fruit producers and
exporters in Binh Thuan and Tien Giang provinces

Milestone 7

Farmer Cluster Groups Applying Good Agricultural
Practices (GAP)

June 2007
Campbell J
The Horticulture and Food Research Institute of New Zealand Ltd
HortResearch Nelson Region
PO Box 220
Motueka 7143

APPENDIX 2 21
VNCI Certification 21
1

BACKGROUND
The implementation of the dragon fruit GAP project has been based on the development of
people’s skills in good agricultural practices (GAP) principles. The people targeted have
been: project personnel stationed at Southern Fruit Research Institute (SOFRI) and other
SOFRI staff, Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD) personnel in the
two project responsibility provinces, dragon fruit exporters, packers and dragon fruit farmers
both small and large holders (with priority given the project document requirement of
addressing small-holders).

The national capability has been developed by the project in a sustainable way and there has
been an increasing awareness, understanding and confidence in GAP principles, especially in
the project national team, which has been evident in their subsequent achievements.

At the commencement of the project implementation, a benchmarking survey to define
baselines for GAP being applied at the small farmer level was undertaken. 126 small-holder
farms were surveyed in the Binh Thuan province and 30 small-holder farms were also
surveyed in the Tien Giang Province.

The purpose of the benchmarking survey was to define the level of operations on the small-
holder farms compared with the documented standards of Euro-Retailer Produce Working
Group; Good Agricultural Practice (EUREPGAP). EUREPGAP was chosen as the standard
by which the farms would be compared, as this is the minimum standard that is accepted by
the high value markets of the United Kingdom and Europe and the standard the project
Figure 1. Benchmarking survey, questionnaire testing with small-holder dragon fruit
farmers. A commercial model “Pilot” of dragon fruit exporter, packer, large farm and small-holders
has been systematically developed by the project and is close to meeting the selected quality
system standards.

The pilot model was set up for two main purposes:
1. To prove the viability of the pilot when implementing GAP, quality systems and
standards that would provide access to high value export markets
2. To establish the structure within the pilot that has a quality system embedded in the
packhouse, to assist the small-holder dragon fruit farmer in implementing their quality
systems, to provide uniformity of standards across the pilot, to be simple to operate,
accurate and a low financial burden to operate.



 Project Leader  Knowledge
 Acceptance
 Management
 Delivery  Project exceeds expectations
 SOFRI Project
Team
 Responsiveness to change
training
 Ability to implement project
obligations
 Motivation to pass on knowledge
gained
 From project leader via
mentoring, presentations, team
interactions, etc.
 Learning from training delivery
feedback
 Networking
 Study Tour: to New Zealand
 Formal courses: e.g. NZOQ
Internal Auditor Course
 Complete understanding of the dragon fruit crop
 Being customer driven
 Complete understanding of quality systems and their
implementation to the level of the adopted standards
 Peer recognition as experts in the field
 Respect for their competence in the project scope and
nationally
 Increased demand on their quality knowledge transfer

 Conducting the survey
 Learning through listening and
observing
 Documentation of the GAP status of small-holder
farms in relation to the EUREPGAP Standard
 Selection of farmers with project delivery potential
 Increased GAP understanding and capability of
SOFRI and DARD staff
 Identification of a suitable packer/exporter for project
GAP intervention

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Stage Area Component Prerequisite Training Outcome
 Small-holder
GAP project
intervention
 Competent project team and
trainers with the necessary
understanding and skills
 Willingness to learn GAP
principles
 Have access to necessary
resources to make the physical
changes needed
 Have the ability to understand
and implement GAP
 GAP benefits extolled during
the benchmarking survey
 Farmer group training through

driven dragon fruit industry include:
 Certified laboratory services for
soil, leaf, water analysis
 Safe use of agrichemicals
 First Aid certification
 Internal auditing.
 Trainer of approved trainers
 Certifying bodies
 Standards development
 Problem solving, R & D
Promotion, etc.
 Documentation of areas to be
addressed
 Mentoring
 Study Tour observations of
working systems
Although outside the scope of the project document, this
area has been encouraged by the project leader. Dr Chau’s
quality systems skills and understanding and position of
authority and respect have led to significant development
in this area.

 Approved/certified/appropriate providers to service
the quality needs of the dragon fruit industry to the
standards demanded by the customer – BRC and
EUREPGAP
 A competitive market for the service providers to
ensure costs to the farmer are kept to a sustainable
minimum
 A strong quality-driven, organised dragon fruit

work closely with the project
team
 Establishment of a documented
quality system
 A code of honesty, transparency
and understanding
 A willingness to take the lead in
the quality development of the
pilot and to fulfil the system
responsibilities to the “supplier”
(small-holder)
 Allow the project to have access
to all the data generated by the
project initiative, for subsequent
analysis and technology transfer
to other dragon fruit groups (and
other crops)
and well as small-holders – an
education/negotiation process
 Define the existing processes
and train for changes necessary
to facilitate compliance –
general and very specific
training
 Train individuals and groups to
a level of proficiency for
stakeholders to “understand”,
“control” and improve all
processes continuously
 Train the quality manager as

ability to improve them
constantly
 Train to be customer driven
 Attain and maintain preferred
supplier status with the
customer and to work together
to resolve any issues jointly
 BRC Global – Food Standards Certification at the
packhouse: maintained
 EUREPGAP Standards Certification for all supplying
farms: maintained
 Consistently high returns for product being exported
 Access to top-end markets through providing product
that is safe, legal, of the quality and presentation
demanded by the customer
 Good communication between customer, exporter,
packer and farmer
4 Compliance
 External Audit  Compliance of the pilot
confirmed by internal audit
 Internal Auditor trained to the
appropriate proficiency
 Corrective action process and
implementation
 Good working relationships
with Certifying Body
 External audit completed
 Corrective action implemented
 Sign off of changes
 BRC Global – Food Standards Certification at the

implementing the project’s documented outcomes in a sustainable way.

It was found that most farmers targeted in the survey did not have resources to make the
necessary changes for them to comply with the standards. Many farmers were found to be
reliant on collectors to harvest and sell their dragon fruit. The combination of small farm size,
poor agronomic practices and the farmer being dependent on the collector for finance that
could involve pre-harvest advance payment for the crop indicated to the project that it would
be difficult for the farmer to respond to the project GAP initiatives, no matter how strong the
initial enthusiasm was. No provision had been made either within or outside the project to
provide the resources the farmer would require to make the changes. It was also very difficult
for the project to convince farmers with extremely limited resources to implement change
when, because there was no precedent, the project could not guarantee that, until tested and
confirmed, the farmer would increase profits from their dragon fruit crop.

The project document scope determined that the poor farmer must be targeted for
improvement. However, it was found during the initial project training programmes that, after
initial enthusiasm to make change by the poor farmers, they quickly lost interest and did not
attend more ongoing GAP training sessions.

SMALL-HOLDER SECTOR OF PROJECT PILOT GROUP ESTABLISHMENT
The project shifted its stance slightly by targeting farmers that had the willingness, ability and
resources to exploit the project’s GAP training, to establish a pilot of a packer/exporter and a
group of farmers that were serious about making the quality changes.

Considerable urgency was placed on the establishment of the pilot. The project has
consistently extolled the benefits of GAP to the farmers in the areas of improved living
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standards and a safer living environment, but has been unable to indicate if GAP production
to the standards required by the high value markets would more than offset the cost incurred
to implement the changes.

Figure 2. High quality dragon fruit packed for export: Exporter purchase order to farmer. Project initiatives and training are determined to develop the pilot that has robust, transparent
and honest quality systems to demonstrate the advantages of GAP, to be very market driven
and to provide a viable, sustainable and clear model for duplication to the wider dragon fruit
industry and across to other crops.
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2. PROGRESS TOWARDS SMALL-HOLDER
CERTIFICATION AS EUREPGAP COMPLIANT AND
PERFORMANCE AUDITED
CHOICE OF QUALITY SYSTEM STANDARDS
The quality standards of EUREPGAP at the farmer level and BRC Global - Food at the
packer level were chosen to be implemented by the project. These quality standards are very
similar and compatible standards and are the minimum requirements for market access to the
high value markets of Europe. One of the key advantages of the two systems is to gain direct
access to high value markets and prevent any product rework in the importing country.

Management of the quality systems of the project pilot has been embedded in the packhouse
under the control of the Quality Manager. There are many advantages from having the quality
system managed by the packhouse. They include:
• The packer is market driven and can provide the vision, leadership and motivation to
develop and maintain the full quality system so that it conforms with the standards at

Figure 3. Spray diary auditing and farmer training in the pilot dragon fruit production
programme. D
RAGON FRUIT QUALITY MANUAL
A dragon fruit quality manual has been developed by the project (Milestones # 4; Draft
Manual and #8; Final Draft of GAP/EUREPGAP Manual) with the small-holder farmer
section encompassed in the overall quality manual. The farmer section documents the farmer
response to every EUREPGAP Standard Major, Minor and Recommended question. Figure 4. High quality dragon fruit. Figure 5. Small-holder dragon fruit farmer group training. The farmer training process being applied by the project:
• firstly creates the understanding of the GAP quality systems
• identifies the physical changes required on the farm
• imposes the quality systems
• trains farmers for an understanding of the quality system requirements
• internally audits the whole process to ensure the quality systems are operating as
described and to the standards required.

The very nature of this dragon fruit project and its requirement for a mixture of training
approaches mean the usual training session measurements of success criteria cannot be
applied. However, a more appropriate and robust and indisputable measure of success will be
provided when the pilot has been evaluated by the Certifying Body and Certification awarded
to the packer and farmers. This process is expected to be completed in July.

11


GAP projects in the areas of Market Access Study, Postharvest Handling of Dragon
fruit, and Quality Control.

Differences in project duration, quality systems and approach and project philosophy of the
two projects always meant that it would be difficult for the two projects to be completely
complementary. However, the CARD project team input into the VNCI initiative greatly
assisted those farmers to reach EUREPGAP compliance and Certification on 26 October 2006
(Appendix 2).

The main differences between the two projects included:

The CARD GAP project pilot:
• Project life of 30+ months and based on ‘people development’ to support the project’s
strong emphasis on long-term sustainability
• Strong encouragement for the development of the infrastructure and an overall
environment conducive to horticultural quality development in Vietnam
• Customer driven and targeting high value markets
• Implementation of the quality systems BRC at the packhouse and EUREPGAP on the
farm
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• The top-down driven quality system embedded in the packhouse for leadership,
sustainability, robustness of systems, process control and operating economy,
especially for the farmer
• Implementation of the quality system to very high standards for high value customer
confidence and for demonstration to other farmers
• Farmer participation focus on the small-holder farm
• Ability to expand continually, at both the farmer and packer levels
• To provide certified dragon fruit in quantity to have the critical mass for export market
testing and subsequent supply. Figure 6. The Project’s Southern Fruit Research Institute (SOFRI) team delivering training
to the Vietnam Competitiveness Initiative (VNCI) pilot dragon fruit farmers. 13

3. BASIC ANALYSIS OF SMALL-HOLDER, AND
EXPORTER FINANCIAL BENEFITS

The project’s systematic approach to the development of the two quality standards of BRC
Global – Food, in the packhouse; and EUREPGAP, for the farmers of the pilot, has meant that
a full and accurate analysis to determine the financial benefits of the implementation of the
quality systems will not be quantified until after certified fruit has been exported to high value
markets.

In the project pilot, every effort has been made to maximise the benefits of the GAP initiative
for all stakeholders. Some of the efforts include:

• The choice of quality standards that enable direct access to high value markets (to
avoid revenue erosion through rework of product in a high labour cost country)
• Provision of quality training and creation of an awareness and understanding by
stakeholder personnel of quality systems management for the sustainable operation of
those quality systems that included corrective action, improvement and an ability to
lift the level of operation to meet elite customer specific requirements (increased
product price generation, sustainable marketing)
• Establishment of quality systems in the demonstration pilot that are robust and
managed, as part of the packhouse quality control processes to provide economical

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APPENDIX 2
VNCI CERTIFICATION