Nikkei Asian Review: Việt Nam nhanh chóng trở thành trung tâm sản xuất hoa

Vietnam fast becoming Asia's flower production center

Việt Nam nhanh chóng trở thành trung tâm sản xuất hoa

Vietnam is becoming a major flower exporter. It finds itself well situated not only to feed Japan, Asia's largest flower market, but also China and other Southeast Asian nations.

Việt Nam đang trở thành một nước chuyên về xuất khẩu hoa. Việt Nam không chỉ tập trung xuất khẩu sang Nhật Bản, thị trường tiêu thụ hoa lớn nhất châu Á mà còn xuất khẩu sang cả Trung Quốc và nhiều quốc gia châu Á khác.

Agrivina employees tend to flowers in a Da Lat greenhouse in July

     During the past decade, Vietnam has quadrupled flower exports to Japan. It has been able to do so partially because Taiwanese and Japanese companies are starting their own growing operations in the country, bringing a lot of technology and experience with them.

Trong một thập kỷ qua, Việt Nam đã tăng gấp 4 lần số lượng hoa xuất khẩu sang Nhật Bản. Sở dĩ có sự tăng trưởng như vậy có thể một phần là vì các công ty Đài Loan và Nhật Bản đang bắt đầu gia tăng các hoạt động ở Việt Nam, mang tới đất nước này nhiều công nghệ và kinh nghiệm trồng hoa.

     A favorite at Tokyo florists are phalaenopsis orchids, which are bought as gifts. High-end bouquets of three cuts, with 30 large white flowers in total, are big sellers. They go for about 30,000 yen ($240) each.

Loại hoa được ưa chuộng bán ở Toyko là hoa lan phalaenopsis, hoa này được mua làm quà tặng. Một bó hoa cao cấp có tổng số 30 bông hoa màu trắng, đó là một món hàng lớn. Người bán kiếm được khoảng 30.000 yen (240USD) mỗi bó.

     Japanese producers are in charge of flowering orchids, but the seedlings are increasingly coming from Vietnam.

Nhật Bản đang trồng nhiều hoa lan nhưng cây giống thì do phía Việt Nam cung cấp.

     Taiwanese produce, which once dominated Japan's market, still accounts for 60% of Japan's orchids seedlings imports, according to a source at a specialized trading house. But imports from Vietnam have captured 40% of the market.

Nhà sản xuất Đài Loan,

     According to government and other sources, Vietnam in 2014 exported about 2.7 billion yen worth of flowers, including bulbs and seedlings, to Japan. The total is double what it was five years earlier, beating the to-Japan export growth by Malaysia, up 43%, and China, up 12%.

     Price is a big reason. A cut chrysanthemum imported from Vietnam in 2014 traded at 29 yen on the Tokyo Metropolitan Central Wholesale Market, about half the price of a domestically grown chrysanthemum and 30% to 40% lower than those from Malaysia and China.

The distribution challenge

Vietnam's center for flower production is Da Lat, a highland city in Lam Dong Province, in the south of the country. Greenhouses cover about 20 sq. km of the province. Annual production has risen to 3 billion cuts, marking double-digit growth.

Agrivina, Vietnam's top flower producer, is headquartered in Da Lat. It has 1.1 sq. km of greenhouses that produce 150 million cuts of chrysanthemums, carnations, roses and other flowers a year. Of these, 70% get exported to Japan, China and elsewhere in Southeast Asia. Agrivina sells domestically under the name Dalat Hasfarm.

In June, leading Taiwanese flower producer Royal Base expanded its greenhouse space in Vietnam by 5,000 sq. meters to 80,000 sq. meters. It uses automation to control temperature, humidity and the amount of agricultural chemicals that are used. It plans to produce 1.4 million flower cuts in Vietnam in 2016, a 16% improvement on its 2015 projection.

     Royal Base produces purple and yellow-green flowers as well as the white varieties favored in Japan. This is because the company is now getting a lot of demand from Southeast Asia, where people lavishly decorate wedding halls and other ceremonial venues with flowers, said Vice President Lin Hou-chih 

     The main challenge is distribution. "Flower production in Vietnam has potential, but distribution still leaves a lot to be desired," said Bernhard Schenke, vice general director of Agrivina.

     While leading flower producers like Agrivina and Royal Base use refrigerated shipping services to preserve their seedlings and bulbs, smaller companies and farming families cannot afford to send their flowers to market this way. As a result, their produce deteriorates during transportation.

Optimal Da Lat

Ota Floriculture Auction, Japan's leading flower wholesaler, hopes to improve the situation. It is working to build a physical market in Vietnam for cut flowers of Japanese quality. It has not yet selected builders or operators but plans to open a production facility in Da Lat by the end of 2017 in partnership with the Lam Dong government. Ota Floriculture Auction has acquired a site of roughly 0.1 sq. km, 20% of which will be initially taken up by the actual market.

     The Japanese wholesaler will bring the experience and skills it has accumulated at the Ota Market, part of the Tokyo Metropolitan Central Wholesale Market. The Da Lat market is expected to help small farms "control their prices, which are now being set by the brokers," an executive of the Da Lat Flower Association said.

     Ota Floriculture Auction also plans to improve the way flowers are transported from Da Lat to Ho Chi Minh City, which is a center for flower consumption as well as a way station to other markets. Transportation usually takes seven to eight hours, and using refrigerated trucks will help keep flowers fresh.

     Flowers grow best at high altitude, in tropical and subtropical regions that get long hours of sun and where the temperature widely fluctuates from day to night. Vietnam's highlands offer optimal growing conditions. In addition, the country beats Malaysia and China as a flower production center because of its low labor costs.

New wave

Better distribution no doubt will fortify Vietnam as a flower production base. But to cater to each market's own taste in flowers, the Vietnamese industry will also have to hone its marketing skills.

     United Nations statistics put global flower exports, including bulbs and seedlings, in 2013 at $21.9 billion. One country, the Netherlands, grabbed 49% of that. Asia's share of the global market reached only 4%. While the number is low, it is up from 2.7% 10 years earlier.

     Rabobank Nederland ranks the world's three largest flower markets as the U.S., $26.6 billion; the European Union, $27.5 billion; and Japan, $9 billion. Production in countries near Europe and North America have grown substantially, specifically in Kenya and Ethiopia in Africa and Columbia and Ecuador in South America.

     Flower consumption is closely linked to economic growth rates, according Rabobank. So big demand increases are expected in China and Southeast Asia. 

     Asian producers, however, are using lower distribution costs to grab more of their own region's markets and supplant growers from the Netherlands and East Africa.

     The Cameron Highlands, in Malaysia, was responsible for Asia's first wave of flower production. Since 2000, Yunnan Province in China, Bangalore in southern India and Da Lat in Vietnam have risen as flower production centers. So ... let there be more lavish ceremonies.