Quickly move from quantity to quality to bee industry to develop sustainably

Mr. Dinh Quyet Tam - Chairman of Vietnam Beekeepers Association.

What do you think about the current export situation of honey in Vietnam, sir?

First of all, it is necessary to reiterate the history of Vietnam bee industry, the honey export market of Vietnam is Japan and Europe. In the 1990s, Europe was the main market, but from the mid 90s to the present, the US gradually became the main market and from 2000 to now, the US market accounted for more than 90% of honey Vietnam export bee. Therefore, Vietnam Beekeepers Association wants to diversify the market because each market has its own characteristics which if we know how to go right and exploit, we will be able to promote their strengths, It has limited commercial implications if we depend too much on a market.

However, in the past few years, the US market has started to show signs of decline, leading to the export of Vietnam is affected. By mid-September, 1974, Vietnam exported more than 29,000 tones. While the export volume is 40,174 tones in 2016, it is about the same as in 2015. The reason for this decline is that because of the large market demand that led to high inventories, prices and demand for importers shrunk. In addition, there is a subjective reason is that our current color has problems, we do not win the advantage as other markets. On the other hand, even inland market is also the status of competition for sale, the export of honey Vietnam has not agreed on trade. Exporters who buy honey from beekeepers buy the highest price to get the goods, but when the problem market tries to sell to get back the capital. This is a downside to be solved. Currently the demand of the EU market is quite large, so there needs to harmonize between the EU and US markets.

Recently, the honey export price of Vietnam has had a very strong decline. According to you, what is the cause of this situation, sir?

The price drop not only happened in Vietnam but also in the world market. However, our rate of decline is much faster than the world. For example, the Indian market, which our priced was competitive with Indian prices, is now 7-10% cheaper than India. The cause of this situation is the quality of honey in Vietnam. In particular, Vietnamese honey has a high content of water, high levels of yeast, acid, glycerin, along with the food residue in honey. This situation comes from harvesting honey "not enough harvesting date " bees to make fermentation unintentional.

what is the solution to improve the quality of honey, sir?

In order to improve quality, we need to change the model of bee keeping and improve the quality when harvesting products instead of concentrating on the quantity as usual. How to make the world thinks of Vietnam honey as the market of high quality products. When the quality is perfect , we will obtain a reputable brand for Vietnam honey.

Specifically, Vietnamese beekeepers now use only single bee containers, so there is no place to store honey, which leads to the situation of harvesting the honey mixed with food and bee. While the countries use the next bucket to make the bee more bile, there are more baby bees. But if using the next bucket, investment costs will be twice as high as today. Previously in Vietnam there were some models of bee keeping in this form, but due to the perception of the community does not distinguish the collected honey from high quality model with the normal usually, so this model does not develop. But if all communities, bees and beekeepers are aware of this problem, this model will have the opportunity to develop and improve the quality of honey products.

In addition to improving the quality of honey, the honey export companies also need to have the same agreement, discussing the export and purchase to have a relative harmonization about quality and price, which do not cause too much damage for any sides. That way, we can not only keep the US market but also develop the EU market.

Thank you Sir.