Building brands for Phu Tho banana products

Building brands for agricultural products is one of the solutions to develop agriculture towards improving productivity, quality, competitiveness and sustainability. Therefore, recently, the province has paid special attention to building brands for key agricultural products, with a focus on banana products.

Cam Khe district has favorable terrain and climate sub-regions for banana production. The banana area in the entire district is currently nearly 500 hectares, concentrated in communes: Minh Tan, Hung Viet and Cam Khe town. Banana areas are mainly distributed in riverside lands, fertile soil, with an annual amount of alluvial deposits, so banana trees grow well, have high productivity, and are suitable for the development of both western and Cavendish banana varieties, to supply to the domestic market and exports to China.

To contribute to building the Phu Tho banana brand, in 2023, the Department of Crop Production and Plant Protection has deployed a scientific and technical application model to improve productivity and quality of banana products in Cam Khe town and Minh Tan commune with an area of 40 hectares, of western banana varieties. Participating in the model, households and production facilities are guided and equipped with knowledge and skills in management, production organization, market development, and technical advances in banana intensive farming, preliminary processing and processing; give instructions for establishing qualified growing areas to be granted domestic codes and VietGAP certificates. The model has supported the facility to build a preliminary processing point, post-harvest bananas are cleaned according to the process, packaged, labeled, and canned to promote the Cam Khe banana brand. The banana growing model has an average yield of 40.5 tons/ ha, resulting in the total income of over 300 million VND/ha/year, minus costs for a profit of more than 190 million VND/ha/year.

With the goal of developing a concentrated commodity production area, associated with building the Phu Tho banana product brand, the Agriculture sector is building a specialized concentrated banana production area that applies science and technology to improve productivity and product quality. In 2023, VietGAP banana growing models will be deployed on an area of 45 hectares in Cam Khe and Ha Hoa districts. In the growing areas, households have strictly applied banana production technical processes and the growing areas have been certified to meet VietGAP standards.

To build raw material areas to serve the export market, in 2023, technical staff of the Department of Crop Production and Plant Protection guided the preparation of documents to issue codes for 24 banana growing areas, conducted field inspections, and completed application documents for issuance of 24 growing area codes to serve domestic consumption for all 24 growing areas with a total area of over 300 hectares. Coordinate with the Plant Protection Department to guide the issuance and management of nine growing area codes for eight banana growing areas with an area of nearly 250 hectares for export to the EU and China markets.

Along with organizing production according to the market standards, the Provincial Agriculture sector also connects product consumption to cooperatives and cooperative groups through supporting electronic traceability stamps and product containers. Products; Invite a number of businesses to survey banana growing areas and sign agreements with cooperatives and cooperative groups to link production, with preliminary processing, processing, and consumption of bananas for people.

Mr. Phan Van Dao - Director of the Provincial Department of Crop Production and Plant Protection said: “The Agriculture Sector is organizing the implementation of the province’s planning, building concentrated banana production areas in districts along the banks of the Red River including: Lam Thao, Cam Khe, Thanh Ba, Tam Nong, Ha Hoa... According to the plan by 2025, the whole province has about 4,820 hectares of banana trees. To date, the whole province has built 33 concentrated banana production areas with a total area of more than 1,000 hectares, and has issued and managed 33 codes for growing areas on an area of nearly 600 hectares of bananas. In the coming time, the Agriculture sector will continue to target the main export market, which is China.”

Hoang Huong