1

Ministry of Agriculture & Rural Development
Milestone Report 7

Improvement of export and domestic
markets for Vietnamese fruit through
improved post-harvest and supply chain
management
CARD Project 050/04VIE Milestone Report 7

Date December 2008

1
Table of Contents

1 Institute Information 2
2 Contact Officer(s) 3
3 Project Abstract 4
4 Executive Summary 4
4.1 Introduction & Background 5

Industries and Fisheries (DPI & F)
Australian Personnel Mr. Robert Nissen
Dr. Peter Hofman
Mr Brett Tucker
Mr. Roland Holmes
Date commenced September 2006
Completion date (original) May 2008
Completion date (revised) December 2008
Reporting period Milestone Report 7

3
2 Contact Officer(s)
In Australia: Team Leader
Name: Mr. Robert Nissen Telephone: +61 07 54449631
Position: Project Leader Fax: +61 07 54412235
Organisation Queensland Department of
Primary Industries and Fisheries
(DPI & F)
Email: [email protected]

In Australia: Administrative contact
Name: Michelle Robbins Telephone: +61 07 3346 2711
Position: Senior Planning Officer
(Emerging Technologies)
Fax: +61 07 3346 2727
Organisation Queensland Department of
Primary Industries and


As part of the promotional material and training aids for this CARD project, over 40 manuals were
developed and provide to the mango and pomelo farmers and to SIAEP and SOFRI staff. These
were provided in hard copy format and electronic format. These manuals cover areas such as:
• Introduction Value/Supply Chains
• Principles of supply chains
• Developing supply chains
• Supply chain analysis
• Developing Strategic Plans
• Developing Action Plans
• Developing new improved Supply Chains
• Mango Physiology and Postharvest Technology to improve supply chains
• Optimising Harvest Quality of Mango
The fruit industry in Vietnam has a great potential and plays an important role in agricultural
production. In 2003, Vietnam exported US$43 million of high value fruit to high-income countries
and imported US$14 million of fruit and vegetables. Vietnam is experiencing difficulties in
competing with other Asian nations in export markets and its own domestic market, especially with
China and Thailand. This suggests that Vietnam’s horticultural industries require substantial
development to be globally competitive. Vietnamese consumers are demanding safer and higher
quality fruit. This project has identified key pre-and post-harvest technology gaps that reduce
product quality, safety and consistency. Targeted training programs are focusing on the total
supply chain and are providing benefits by helping to implement quality management systems and
GAP systems at the village level providing greater employment for the farming community. This
project embraces the five CARD strategies for rural development; and in particular; strategies to
increase production and competitiveness of agricultural systems; reduce poverty and vulnerability,
and increase stakeholder participation whilst ensuring sustainability. 5
• Improving Mango harvest Systems

• no quality standards
• poor post harvest technologies
• poor pre-harvest practices
• lack of group co-operative marketing structures
• little information about supply chains, prices and customers needs.

Stakeholder/beneficiary analysis of fruit crops in the Mekong delta showed that both mango and
pomelo (with plantings of 33 000 ha and 9 000 ha, respectively) are very important fruit crops in
Southern Vietnam. The objectives of this CARD project 05/04 VIE are to:
• Improved pre-harvest technologies to produce high quality mango (integrated pest
management, integrated crop management, fruit fly control, maturity indices, reduced
pesticide residues, better environmental and human health etc) 6
• Improve mango and pomelo post-harvest technologies (eg, cool chain management,
packaging, post-harvest dipping, ethylene ripening, waxing, washing and wetting agents,
quality assurance)
• Improve quality standards and quality assurance programs for mango and pomelo. The
approach and methodologies developed for these crops through this project will be
applied to other fruits and vegetables.
• Map current supply chains to domestic and selected export markets, with particular
emphasis on determining consumer preferences and needs, and reporting results back
to farmers.
• Provide a better understanding and possible improvements of the supply chain by
Vietnamese fruit industries for mango and pomelo.

This CARD project fills capacity gaps and reduces major weaknesses in pre-and post-harvest
technologies affecting product quality consistency and supply chain management and planning.
Highly specialised targeted training programs and research appropriate for institutions and industry

the agreed directions in the strategic and action plans for both the mango and pomelo, the CARD
project participants (SIEAP, SOFRI staff and the mango and pomelo farmers) develop skills via
workshops aligned to the CARD Project objectives.
The Objective, Reflective, Interpretative, and Decisional (ORID) system was used to evaluate the
effectiveness of the eight farmer training schools and workshops conducted in September-October
2007 and January-February 2008. Vietnamese farmers and SIAEP and SOFRI staff were
surveyed at the completion of each workshop.

Summary analysis of the workshops for September-October 2007 and January-February 2008
using the ORID system showed:-
• workshop length:- 70% of participants found that the workshops were of the right time
length with the remaining 30% indicating that they were too short. These participants
indicated workshops should be between three to 5 days in length.
• trainees understanding of concepts:- 50% of participants understood the concepts very
well, with the remaining 50% understanding concepts well.
• new information:- the pre-and post-harvest management workshops, all participants
indicted that some of the information presented was new to them.
• usefulness of information provided:- 86% of participants indicated that the information
would be very useful in working with other professionals and growers to develop new
supply chains, whilst the remaining 14% indicated that all the information would be useful.
• trainees use of materials:- 83% of participants indicated that training methods used and
information provided would be used by them, while the reaming participants indicated that
they would us this information in some form to develop new supply chains. Some feared
that they would not be able to implement high end technology components (graders
packaging etc., that were implemented in Australia). These fears were soon laid to rest
with simple grading technologies explained and demonstrated in the training workshops
held in January –February 2008.
• trainees confidence in using techniques and methodology:- 90% of participants indicated
that their confidence would improve with further training.
• cultural barriers:- 63% of participants indicated they were unsure if cultural barriers would

developed (See Appendix B).

Studies on pomelo cv. “Nam Roi” and “Da Xanh” and mango cv. “Cat Hoa Loc”, “Ghep” and “Cat
Chu” were carried out and data collected on fruit quality characteristics and market requirements
and characteristics reported on in CARD progress reports for Milestones five and six. Workshops
on manual development and consultation were carried out with farmers, cooperatives, wholesalers
and retailers in July-August 2007, September 2007, January 2008 and July 2008 to construct and
develop these quality assurance manuals. In January-February 2008 an overview of the draft copy
of the Cat Hoa Loc mango Quality Guide was shown and discussed with Metro Cash and Carry Le
Thi Minh Trang, Quality Assurance Manager and Stephane Maurin, Divisional Manager–Fresh
Food to determine their needs and input. These activities align with CARD project Milestone 4 and
activities 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13 and with focus on further development of “Metro” type supply
chain as suggested by the CARD PMU in their MS6 appraisal report.

Some of the mango and pomelo cooperative members indicated that the standards may be too
strict. Further workshops and consultation and amendments to manuals alleviated many of these
fears farmers and cooperative members had. The standards used in the mango manual were
based on the Vietnamese CODEX Standard 18

Using the ORID analysis system, the six workshops for 2007 and 2008 to development of quality
manuals were evaluated and findings were:-

• workshop length:- 90% of participants indicated the workshops were the right time length
with the remaining 10% indicating that they were too short. These participants indicated
workshops should be between 4 days in length.
• trainees understanding of concepts:- 70% participants understood the concepts very well,
with the remaining 30% understanding concepts well.
• new information:- for the orchard management workshops, all participants indicated that
information presented was new to them.
• usefulness of information provided:- 75 to 86% (with an average 79.5%) of participants

Southern Vietnam and build upon the CARD Project strategic and action plans developed in April
2006 for mango and pomelo cooperatives in Southern Vietnam. Analysis of all the workshops for
2006 to 2008 using the ORID system showed the manuals and printed material supplied for this
CARD project showed:-
• new information, 65% to 85% for trainers (SIAEP and SOFRI staff)
• new information 85% to 100% for farmers of pomelo and mango

Promotional material, training aids, developed and produced by DPI&F and provided were:-
4.3.3.1 Introduction to Value Supply Chains
1. Workshop 1:- CARD Project start Up Workshop (Workbook)
2. Workshop 2:- Part 1:- Introduction to Food Value Chains (Workbook)
3. Workshop 2:- Part 2:- Developing Food Value Chains (Workbook)
i. Workshop 3:- Value Chain Analysis:- (Manuals and Workbooks)
ii. Process Outline
iii. Section 1:- Interview Techniques and Questionnaires Design
iv. Section 2:- Survey, Questionnaires Design and Interview Techniques
1. Example Questionnaires for supply chain analysis:
a. Growing Environment (Regional extension Officer
Questionnaire) 10
b. Farmer Cultural Practices (Farmer Questionnaire)
c. Crop Harvest (Farmer Questionnaire)
d. Pre-harvest Treatments (Farmer, Collector, Trader,
Retailer Questionnaires)
e. Size and Grading (Farmer, Collector, Trader, Retailer
Questionnaires)
f. Packaging (Farmer, Collector, Trader, Retailer
Questionnaires)

vii. Advantages of packaging
viii. Developing product quality standards
3. Workshop 1:- Developing new improved horticultural supply chains Part A
4. Workshop 2:- Developing new improved horticultural supply chains Part B
5. Mango and Citrus Orchard design (Manual and Workbook)
6. Workshop 3: Developing Mango and Citrus Orchard Designs
7. Developing Quality standards 11

4.3.3.4 Mango physiology and post harvest technology, mango harvesting and field
handling and socio-economic analysis and development (Manuals and
Workbooks)
1. Key production practices affecting postharvest quality of mangoes (Manuals and
workbooks)
2. Mango physiology
a. Fruit ripening and quality loss
b. Causes of quality loss
3. Mango postharvest practices and technologies
a. Harvesting and field handling
b. Pack-house operations and practices
c. Ripening and storage
d. Transporting
e. Know your customer requirements
f. Postharvest treatments
g. Sanitation
4. Mango postharvest physiology (Workbook 1)
5. Mango postharvest technology (Workbook 2)
6. Ripening room design and setting up a ripening system for mangoes (Manual)

9. Transport and handling fresh produce along the value/supply chain (Workbook)

4.3.3.6 Marketing and focus Groups Training (Manual)
1. Understanding how to obtain information and the advantages and disadvantages of
focus groups (Manual)
1.1. Introduction
1.2. How a consumer focus group functions
1.3. Consumer research using focus groups
1.4. Factors for focus-group success
1.5. Planning an agenda
1.6. Recruitment
1.7. Moderation
1.8. Analysis and interpretation of the results
1.9. Features for conducting focus groups
1.10. Advantages/disadvantages of focus groups
1.11. When/when not to use focus groups

4.3.3.7 Designing Training Workshops for mango and pomelo growers in Vietnam
(Workbook and Manuals)
1. Train the trainer workshop for mango and pomelo
2. Session Notes
3. Principle of adult education
4. Planning effective training
5. Preparation of training content
6. Evaluation of training activity
7. Bennett’s Hierarchy for supply chain project evaluation
8. Exercises
9. Train the trainer workshop for mango and pomelo in post harvest technology (Workbook)

4.3.3.8 Socio-economic analysis of mango and pomelo supply chains in Vietnam

8 Mango Pest Management Workshop Manual
9 Integrated Approach to Disease Management in Mangoes (Workbook)
10 Session Notes
11 Using Chemicals (Manual)
12 Using Chemicals (Workbook)

4.3.3.10 Reference material provided was:

1 Mango Information Kit (Agrilink Series QAL 9903) in both hard copy and electronic format in
both English and Vietnamese.
2 A Practical Manual for Producers and Exporters from Asia Regulations, Standards and
Certification for Agricultural Exporters, FAO, RAP Publication 2007/13, in both hard copy and
electronic format in both English and Vietnamese.
3 Marketing Extension Guide, Horticultural Marketing, FAO, ISSSN 1020-7317 in both hard
copy and electronic format in English.
4 Small Scale Post-harvest Handling Practices: A manual for Horticultural Crops (4
th
Edition), by
Lisa Kitinoja and Adel A. Kader, University of California, Davis Postharvest horticulture Series
No. 8E July 2002, in both hard copy and electronic formation in English and Vietnamese.
5 Associations of market traders. Their roles and potential for further development. FAO, AGSF
Occasional Paper 7, Rome 2005 in hard copy and electronic format in English.
6 Proceedings of the FAO/AFMA workshop on quality and safety in traditional horticultural
marketing chains in Asia, 7-10 November 2005, Bangkok, Thailand, RAP Publication 2006/15
in both hard copy and electronic formation in English.
7 Guidelines for rapid appraisal of agrifood chain performance in developing countries, FAO,
Agricultural Marketing and Finance, Occasional Paper 20, in both hard copy and electronic
formation in English.
8 Quality and Safety in the traditional horticultural marketing chains of Asia. FAO, Agricultural
Marketing and Finance, Occasional Paper 11, in both hard copy and electronic formation in

(4
th
Edition) Hard copy in English and the website for the electronic copy in Vietnamese
provided.

4.4 Small holder Benefits and Capacity Building
Farmer groups in the CARD project have now show greater initiative by looking for new
approaches to solving problems they have encountered during this project. Outcomes and CARD
project impacts for 2 examples have been:-

• A group of mango grower/farmers have been stimulated into proactively addressing and
developing new and improved harvesting and post-harvesting methods.
o applied new pruning and tree training techniques.
o implemented new handling and packaging systems.
o invested in a pack house and equipment (grading system, hot water treatment
tank for disease control, sorting tables and packaging to improve the saleability
and shelf life of their product. (These new processes significantly increased fruit
shelf life by 7 days and only 10% of fruit were infected with disease in 9 days 15
compared to traditional system where 100% of the fruit were infected and
unsaleable).
o new contract signed to supply product to Metro.
o 50 tonnes of fruit supplied to processor for the Japanese markets.
o obtained Viet GAP accreditation.
o cooperative now employs 17 local people from the local community.

• A group of pomelo grower/farmers have also invested in a pack house and developed a
new sorting and grading system. Some progress and results include:

Mr Nissen has published papers in international journals and given presentations to international.
Conferences, papers publisher, and presentation given were:

Conference:
First international symposium on improving the performance of supply chains in the transitional
economies. 2005. Lotus Pang Suan Kaeo Hotel, Chiang Mai, Thailand. 16

Papers published:
A. P. George, R. J. Nissen, and R. H. Broadley. 2006. Strategic Analysis: a Key
factor in developing Horticultural Supply chains in Transitional economies.
Proceedings of the First International Symposium on Improving the performance of
supply chains in the Transitional Economies. Acta Horticulturae 669, pp 205-212.

R.J. Nissen, A. P. George, R.H. Broadley, S. M. Newman and S. Hetherington.
2006. Developing improved supply chains for temperate fruits in Transitional
Asian economies of Thailand and Vietnam. Acta Horticulturae 669, pp 335-342

Presentations:

A. P. George, R. J. Nissen, and R. H. Broadley. 2006. Strategic Analysis: a Key
factor in developing Horticultural Supply chains in Transitional economies.
Proceedings of the First International Symposium on Improving the performance of
supply chains in the Transitional Economies

R.J. Nissen, A. P. George, R.H. Broadley, S. M. Newman and S. Hetherington.
2006. Developing improved supply chains for temperate fruits in Transitional
Asian economies of Thailand and Vietnam.

Duc Khanh. Case studies of product quality improvement and supply chain
management for stonefruit, mango and pomelo in Thailand, Laos and Vietnam.

Conference:
Second international symposium on improving the performance of supply chains in the transitional
economies. 23-27 September 2007. SOFTEL Hotel, Hanoi, Vietnam.

Papers published:A.
A. P. George, R. J. Nissen, and R. H. Broadley. 2006. Improving horticultural
supply chains in Asia and the developing Economies requires a shift in strategic
thinking. Acta Horticulturae 794, pp 1475-153.

R. J. Nissen, A. P. George, P. Hofman, B. Tucker, M. Rankin. 2008.
Development of new processes for evaluation and implementing new improved
horticultural supply chains operating in South-East Asia. Acta Horticulturae 794.
pp 269-278.

S. M. Newman, V. V. V. Ku, S. D. Hetherington, T.D. chu, D. L. Tran and R. J.
Nissen. Mapping stone fruit supply chins in North West Vietnam. Acta
Horticulturae 794. pp 261-268.

Presentations:

A. P. George, R. J. Nissen, and R. H. Broadley. 2006. Improving horticultural
supply chains in Asia and the developing Economies requires a shift in strategic
thinking.
R. J. Nissen, A. P. George, P. Hofman, B. Tucker, M. Rankin. 2008.
Development of new processes for evaluation and implementing new improved
horticultural supply chains operating in South-East Asia.


Good agricultural Practices and Food Safety Workshop, Binh Thuan, 21-22 July 2008,
Collaboration for Agriculture and Rural Development (CARD Program) Australian
Government AusAID Australian Government and Ministry of Agriculture and Rural
Development.

Paper published:
Mr. R. J. Nissen, Mr. Nguyen Duy. Duc, Dr. Nguyen Minh .Chau, Mr. Vu
Cong.Khanh, Mr Ngo Van Binh, Ms San Tram Anh, Ms Tran Thi Kim
Oanh. 2008. CARD Project 050/04 VIE. Improvement of export and
domestic markets for Vietnamese fruit through improved post-harvest and
supply chain management.

PowerPoint presentation:
CARD Project 050/04 VIE. Improvement of export and domestic markets
for Vietnamese fruit through improved post-harvest and supply chain
management.

Poster presentation:
CARD Project 050/04 VIE. Improvement of export and domestic markets
for Vietnamese fruit through improved post-harvest and supply chain
management.

4.6 Project Management
A previously reported, close linkages with the joint RMIT and DPIF project staff working on Quality
Assurance Systems for ASEAN Fruit and Vegetables (QASAFV) have continued. Exchange of
information has occurred on a regular basis. The information exchanged covered areas such as:
• product quality concepts
• development of ASEAN GAP standards
• supply chain development and evaluation processes


5 Report on Cross-Cutting Issues
5.1 Environment
As previously reported, many environmental issues were identified during consultation with
grower/farmers during the participatory action learning workshops. Even now, towards the end of
this CARD project, many farmers still feel these will impact heavily upon they ability to achieve
GAP accreditation in the future. The issues of concern are:
• contamination of irrigation water (disposal of grey water and by product contamination of
waterways)
• agricultural spray application methodology and practices
• type and amount of fertiliser, their application methods to reduce environmental
contamination
• mixed farming methodology and cultural practices (mixed plant and animal farming
practices)

Irrigation and Water Management Practices 20
Water plays several roles in agricultural cropping systems. Irrigation scheduling (when and how
much water to apply) is critical and coupled with water scheduling and soil water monitoring
provides and efficient and effective use of water. Mango and pomelo plants require water at critical
times and these are:-
• flowering and fruit set
• fruit development
• and vegetative growth phases

Therefore, monitoring of soil water is essential to eliminate excessive plant stress at these critical
times. Excessive moisture stress (drought) or over-watering can affect cropping capacity and
product quality as well as nutrient and pesticide runoff into the environment. Good farm and
orchard design is essential to ensure any runoff is trapped on farm. This is an essential element of


Whilst many farmer/growers have received IPM training their application and adoption on farm has
been lacking due to compounding factors that occur at the farm level.
21
Even though these environmental issues are not strictly part of this CARD project we are providing
some training on orchard design, water and soil conservation methods. Far greater emphasis will be
placed on delivering IPM and IDM methods. This will be in consultation with our Vietnamese
partners. This project aims to deliver for mango and pomelo an assurance system that will deliver a
safe clean product that meets Asian GAP standards.

5.2 Gender and Social Issues
The project is aware of the need to incorporate, encourage and support the role of women as
members of cooperatives. Very few represented both as general members and even less at a
management level. This is an ongoing challenge facing cooperative development as in general,
households will join as members of the cooperative, but female member of the household will only
attend meetings if her male partner is unable. However, it has been recognised that women play a
variety of roles at all levels of both mango and pomelo supply chains and encourage the
involvement of women in this project.

Women are heavily involved in the post-harvest marketing and sale of fruit. They represent the
majority of collectors, wholesalers, traders and retailers in both local and HCMC markets, so further
upstream training should be designed to address these roles and encourage their participation by
the Vietnamese institutes. Many of these women provide valuable insights to marketing of fruit and
customer requirements.

The Vietnamese project team is still represented with women making up the majority of the team
from SOFRI and SIAEP. They play key roles in project implementation experimental design and

raised were during workshop and discussions centred on issues such as:
• pollution of irrigation water
• intercropping (citrus and cash crops under trees)
• animals (chickens) running loose in the orchards
• difficulties in applying sprays
• fruit bats are a causing significant problems
• fruit fly is also a problem
• bacterial spot is increasing in severity and affecting more orchards each year

All growers have found that they have limited resources (capital/money) to implement GAP and
access to capital via low interest rate loans to implement GAP principles are non existent. This
makes undertaking GAP practices extremely difficult for grower/farmers. Low returns on crops
grown, and no available capital, means that improvement will only occur at an extremely slow rate.
Many grower/farmers will remove crops that are unprofitable or difficult to manage and grow.

Expectation by grower/farmers is that handouts from the project will occur, but this is not the case.
This project is designed to build their confidence by improving their ability through capacity building
exercises to solve problems and implement solutions that will provide increased returns.

At the collector, trader and wholesaler level:
Standardised and fruit grade standards will be difficult to maintain due to grading being carried out
by eye.

6.2 Options
Development of grade standards for both pomelo and mango was undertaken via consultation with
grower/farmers, collectors, traders, wholesalers. Grade standards were developed and will
continue to be reviewed and modified by this CARD Project team and each Cooperative involved in
this project. Increased returns may not come immediately as these new supply chains fight for
existence with older more established chains. Once chains establish a presence, and consumers
experience superior quality product from these chains, benefits will come (demonstrated by the

• undertaking surveys on quality and survey to assess improvements being implemented
• developed new improved supply chains, pre-harvest and post-harvest techniques to
maintain mango and pomelo product quality

Several sustainability problems do arise they are being addressed by the project through
participatory action learning process and this project is making good progress in addressing issues
above. One issue of concern and highlighted by many growers and involves financial assistance.
The project team members believe that some of these issues can be addressed through
development of grower financial training project and government assistance through special
schemes set up to assist farmers implement GAP principles.

7 Next Critical Steps
These have been grouped under the following categories based on strategic plan priorities and are
as follows:
• Implementation of GAP, focussing initially on pest and disease management (IPM)
• Improving applicability of farming techniques and technologies of harvesting, packing and
tansporting. 24
• Reducing post-harvest losses by establishing a demonstration of production, sorting,
packing and transport systems to provide the quality required by selected better retail
outlets
• Improve linkages between growers, traders, customers, scientists and government also
need to be involved.
• Develop high value supply chain
• Improve practices to provide high quality fruit
• Re cycle orchards as a long term plan to provide high quality fruit

For a complete breakdown of the CARD project critical steps see the Mango and Pomelo Action