Vietnamese companies cannot fulfil demand for Vietnamese bananas at the moment due to a shortage of the fruit. Lê Si Công, Director of Sarl La Ba Da Lat, says that "these past three months, we have had many orders, but we cannot fulfil them. For example, everyday, our Japanese partner asks for tens of tons of La Ba bananas, but we can only partially supply him. The Head of an export company says that currently, “we have problems finding bananas, there are not enough farms, and we don’t dare sign big orders.”
Trân Danh Thê, Director of a company in Dong Nai province says that “not long ago, our partner in Dubai needed to import 2,000 tons, but we could only supply him with 2 containers, ten or so tons”. However, on the contrary to the banana shortage in the South, the offer in the North is abundant - yet still insufficient for the market demand.
According to Trân Van Can, Head of a banana exporting company, they have exported almost 2,400 tons to China over the last 10 months, i.e. a 20% increase in a year. Yet, he explains that “we have to get our supply from individual farms. They are less stable sources with lower quality. Our Chinese partners can accept it, but not Japan or the Republic of Korea.”
The sector’s priorities in ensuring export sustainability are: developing farming zones following GlobalGap and VietGap regulations, strengthening links betweens farmers and companies and making the most of technical assistance from the government to achieve high quality products.