Fruit sales at home and abroad are rising steadily and a survey indicates farmers in the Mekong Delta sell a mere 2.5% of their fruits directly to exporting businesses. Due to several incidents over preservatives and pesticide residues in foreign fruits, local consumers have been switching to using homegrown fruits, said experts at a review conference in Tien Giang Province last week on a project... 

Fruit varieties grown in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta are already fetching higher prices, nearly two months ahead of the Tet (lunar new year) holiday, when prices typically undergo a seasonal spike. Wholesale traders have flocked to orchards to buy up ripening crops of Lai Vung mandarin and Cat Chu mango in Dong Thap Province, green-peeled grapefruit in Beon Tre Province, and Hoa Loc mango in Tien... 

CAN THO – Finished rice prices in the Mekong Delta go down again after staying high for a long time, while rains and high tides adversely affect the quality of the autumn-winter paddy being harvested in Hau Giang and Can Tho and push up harvest cost. Rice prices fall due to rain In several Mekong Delta provinces, commercial rice prices have fallen by VND150-200 after reaching the peak of VND5,000-5,100... 

Efforts to deploy the large-scale rice field model to produce high-quality rice for export have been well on progress, but the scheme is still far from success given the absence of strong food traders, heard a seminar in An Giang last week. Enterprises must be financially strong to ensure that the cooperation between them and farmers in deploying the large-scale rice field model pays off, said Le... 

In the Mekong Delta, even though price of dried coconut has of late dropped to an all-time low of VND14,000-16,000 per dozen (US$0.76), coconut traders are still nowhere to be seen. Farmers in dilemma Ben Tre Province, renowned as the kingdom of coconuts, is the worst affected, with all coconut farmers complaining about the pathetically low price of dried coconut these days. Nguyen Thi Hai, a farmer... 

After a long time of staying high, the price of tra fish has tumbled since early this month, unnerving farmers in the Mekong Delta. Many provinces have seen the price of the fish dipping by some VND2,000 a kilo compared to two weeks ago. Compared to February, the price has shrunk by a combined VND3,000-4,000 per kilo to around VND24,000, VND23,000 and VND22,000 for a kilo of grades 1, 2 and 3 respectively... 

Exports of coconuts and coconut products are expected to top US$80 million this year, accounting for nearly a fifth of the country’s total fruit exports, the Vietnam Fruit and Vegetables Association has said. In the first seven months, exports were worth US$55.5 million, a 213 percent rise year-on-year. Vietnam’s major coconut product exports are copra and canned coconut milk. In the January-July... 

Vietnam exported 218,896 million tonnes of rice worth US$113 million in the first half of September, raising the total shipments to 5.536 million tonnes and earnings to US$2.638 billion so far this year. Since early January, rice exports have increased by 9 percent in volume and 23 percent in value compared to last year’s same period. Currently, the price of rice in the Mekong River Delta hovers... 

Experts once predicted that the rice price in Asia would keep rising and may reach the three-year peak. However, in fact, the rice price in Mekong Delta provinces has been decreasing dramatically, which has discouraged farmers. Both high and low quality rice prices go down Contrary to all predictions, the rice price continues the downward trend for the second consecutive week. On the first days of... 

Shrimp exporters to Japan have been entreating help of state management agencies, saying that they may lose the Japanese market if the agencies do not help in controlling the aquaculture. The call has been made by shrimp processing companies after Japan threatened to verify 100 percent of the shrimp consignments imported from Vietnam. Meanwhile, Japan remains the biggest shrimp export market for Vietnam,...