Vietnam’s veggie hub to have Japanese-style flower wholesale market
Thursday, April 09, 2015, 12:09 GMT+7
A Japanese agency is bringing the model of Japan’s largest flower market to the Vietnamese province of Lam Dong, whose capital city is known as Vietnam’s veggie hub.
The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the Lam Dong administration reached an agreement on Wednesday to build the wholesale flower market of Da Lat in the eponymous city under the model of the Tokyo-based Ota flower market.
Da Lat, the capital city of Lam Dong, is Vietnam’s hub for green produce and flowers thanks to its cool climate.
The Ota market started operation in 1991 and now handles 2.451 million cut stalks on a daily basis, according to its website. It also hosts the largest flower auction in Tokyo.
The Da Lat wholesale market will be linked with Binh Dien, one of the largest wholesale markets in Ho Chi Minh City, to supply flowers to the southern megacity, one of Da Lat’s largest consumption markets.
Some 70 percent of Da Lat-grown flowers are transported to Ho Chi Minh City for distribution.
The Da Lat wholesale market project has a total investment of VND164 billion (US$7.64 million). The JICA and Lam Dong authorities are slated to prepare a detailed construction plan by the end of this month, and the market is scheduled for completion in 2017.
The market will be capable of selling 200 million flower stalks a year.
The Binh Dien market will function as a distribution center, which receives orders for Da Lat flowers from smaller markets and sellers, and transfers these to the Da Lat side.
The Da Lat wholesale market will collect products from local growers and transport them to the southern city to fulfill the orders. The flowers will be subject to post-harvest treatment and freeze storage before and during transportation.
What is most important about the market is that all payments are made public and transparent to flower growers, a JICA representative underlined at a meeting yesterday with the provincial administration.
The wholesale market will help growers set the prices for their products, he said.
Most Da Lat flower farmers currently have to sell their products to brokers, who usually purchase them at low prices.
The JICA recommended that Lam Dong carry out the project via public investment instead of calling for the participation of private investors, who may manipulate the market’s operations to earn their own interests.
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