While the Ministry of Science and Technology (MST) says the cell alive system (CAS), a farm produce preservation technology, is suitable to Vietnam, farmers and exporters remain undecided.
The director of the Bac Giang province Science & Technology Department Nguyen Duc Kien on June 30 confirmed that the Minister of Science & Technology had agreed to transfer CAS to Bac Giang.
However, the province will have to follow procedures before it can use the technology to preserve litchis after harvesting.
With support from the Ministry of Science and Technology (MST), Bac Giang in 2014 exported 10 tons of litchis preserved with CAS to Japan.
Meanwhile, five tons of litchis have been preserved with CAS, which allows Vietnam to export products even after the litchi season, and allows airlines to transport litchis.
AIC Company in June signed a contract on buying 1,000 tons of Bac Giang’s litchis for export. AIC itself also cooperates with MIC to preserve tens of tons of litchis with CAS.
Also, according to Kien, one enterprise in Bac Giang has agreed to use CAS and it is preparing cold storehouses. It is the Binh Minh Cooperative in Viet Yen District.
CAS too expensive for farmers
Scientists noted that using CAS would be very costly. The equipment to preserve farm produce at the MST’s Institute for Regional Research and Development is reported to be worth VND20 billion.
The machine has a capacity of 100 kilos per hour, which means that one ton of litchis can be preserved every day.
Meanwhile, an analyst noted that farmers hesitate to use the expensive technology in preserving farm produce because they fear CAS would be of no use.
“CAS will be helpful only in the export of litchis to Japan. Meanwhile, the US and Australia require litchis to be irradiated before shipping,” he said.
Meanwhile, Nguyen Van Binh, chair of Binh Minh Cooperative, said he does not know about CAS utilization.
“You should ask the local science and technology department. We still don’t have any information,” he said.
Nguyen Van Thach, a farmer from Luc Ngan litchi growing area, said that farmers still used the traditional way to protect litchis after the harvesting.
They put litchis in styrofoam boxes with ice and ship the boxes to HCM City where litchis will be irradiated before export.
“I heard on radio and television that with CAS, the fruit is put into cold storage and kept at tens of degrees minus. But in fact, cold storage cannot help protect litchis. If you do not have any solutions to protect litchis after taking fruit out of cold storage, the fruit will get blackish,” he said.
Source: vietnamnet.vn