VGP - Việt Nam is the world’s biggest exporter of cashew nuts and black pepper, the second biggest exporter of rice and coffee and a major global supplier of farmed fish, says Financial Times.
But few people in Europe or America realize that when they open a pack of nuts, gulp down a cup of instant coffee or dig into a portion of fish and chips, they may well be eating Vietnamese products.
Việt Nam’s millions of smallholding farmers have capitalized on the country’s integration into global markets to become successful producers of high volume of agricultural commodities.
Yet it will not be easy for Việt Nam to move up to the next level, producing higher value processed foods and branded products, according to Prakash Jhanwer, who heads up the Việt Nam, Indonesia and Laos’s offices for Olam International, the Singapore-based agricultural commodities giant.
Việt Nam has some of the best farmers in Asia, Jhanwer told beyondbrics in his Hồ Chí Minh City office, but driving through agricultural change is very tough, he added.
By Thùy Dung