Organic farming taking root in Vietnam

Organic farmer Pham Phuong Thao has said it is not a realistic business venture for most local farmers.

“It simply isn’t very profitable and probably isn’t a worthwhile investment for most local farmers,” Ms Thao noted.

She first went into the segment four years ago, when she launched her organic business. The company spent its first few years trialling a wide variety of fruits and vegetables and experimenting with differing approaches.

“It’s a lot of hard work and one doesn’t see immediate returns,” she quipped, noting it differs substantially from conventional farming requiring much more expertise and investment to be successful.

All phases of cultivation and harvest must be free of pesticides, chemicals, stimulants, hormones and genetically modified seeds. In addition, growers must keep a thorough record of production.  

There were no textbooks on how to establish an organic farm in Vietnam when we started our operations and we had to learn every lesson the old-fashioned way, by trial and error, she said.

For instance, she noted that organic plants are much more susceptible to damage from wet weather conditions and that product quality can be ruined even from a heavy rain on the day of harvest.

The most difficult vegetables to grow we learned were sweet ones because they attracted a lot of insects. For the same reason, fruit was also tricky – and mango, she added, was impossible to grow organically.

To deter pests, Thao had to develop her own cropping strategies to grow plants such as leeks or young garlic alongside other vegetables to prevent the nasty insects from destroying the crops.

We learned quickly that organic farming was much more demanding than conventional agriculture and required strict production procedures be meticulously followed. It also raised the cost of our produce beyond what most local consumers were willing to pay.

After four years of operation, her organic farm has opened four stores nationwide and has become the first farm in Vietnam to have been awarded organic farming certificates from both the US and EU.

But Ms Thao cautioned the road to profitability was not instant.

It’s only been in the last two years that we’ve broken even, said Ms Thao. In the last year, we’ve made more money because we learned from past mistakes and had higher yields with more greenhouses.

Though organic farming has seen a slow and steady rise, it remains an open question as whether is it a profitable business model for the agriculture segment of the nation’s economy on the whole.