Most shallot farmers are among the poorest people in the country. Increasingly unpredictable rainfall has lowered yields and changing market conditions have created demand uncertainty. Each year thousands of tons of shallots remain unsold. Soc Trang province is aware of the difficulties facing the sector and wants to provide support.
Fresh Studio was requested to support Soc Trang province in this process. In the first phase of the project, Fresh Studio conducted a value chain analysis to critically assess the issues faced by different stakeholders and identify opportunities for improvement, including:
- High cost and inconsistent quality of shallot seeds.
- Unstainable shallot production practices.
- Short storage period with high losses of consumption shallot and seed shallot.
- Losing market share in the domestic market due to strong competition from cheap and year-round available Indian shallots.
- Consumers like the Vinh Chau shallot, but are not aware about the heritage of Vinh Chau shallots and can only buy them a few months per year.