Vietnam to invest $190mln for hi-tech flower industry
Wednesday, January 01, 2014, 17:00 GMT+7
A VND4 trillion (US$190 mln) credit package will be channeled into Da Lat’s flower farming to turn it into a high-tech sector, said a senior municipal state official at the seminar “Da Lat flower and tourism” which was held last Friday in the Central Highlands city of Da Lat.
The credit package’s priority is to support enterprises and individual who want to adopt new technologies and business models in the flower industry so that Da Lat’s flower products will not only serve local market but also foreign ones, said Pham S, deputy chairman of Lam Dong Province People’s Committee.
At the seminar, attendees also raised concern over the challenges that Da Lat’s flower industry is facing, especially in terms of quality, technology and internal resources. Besides developing the flower farming sector, Da Lat also focuses on building the tourism sector.
The city, currently has more than 400 flower species after more than 70 years of developing its own flower industry, is increasing its planting area as well as farming technology for the new goal.
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According to the Vietnam Fruit and Vegetables Association, fruit and vegetable exports in December this year is expected to reach $72 million, bringing the total export turnover in 2013 to more than $1 billion, up 21 percent over the 2012’s rate of more than $ 827 million. The major export markets for Vietnamese fruit and vegetable are China, Japan, the US, Russia, Thailand, Malaysia, South Korea, Taiwan, the Netherlands and Singapore. Among them, China is the largest importer of Vietnamese fruit and vegetable with about $300 million, accounting for one-third of the country’s total export revenues. China makes up 28 percent of foreign market share of Vietnamese fruit and vegetable, followed by Japan and the US which accounts for 5-6 percent of the total market share each. However, Vietnam had to spend $402 million on importing foreign fruits and vegetables, up 16.6 percent over the previous year. |
