Global Production Networks and Rural Development
29/07/21 03:25PM
Fumie Takanashi, The interlinkage of the Vietnamese horticultural sector with the Chinese market: the case of watermelons (Edward Elgar Publishing), 2021.
This chapter explores how the emerging Chinese market has impacted the Vietnamese horticultural sector, which consists of scattered production by smallholders and a relatively primitive distribution system. We examine the watermelon sector as a case study, drawing on the results of field studies we conducted in 2011, 2013, and 2018 at several specific watermelon-producing sites in Vietnam. Vietnamese watermelons entered the Chinese market in around 2000, and demand led to production expanding. The Vietnamese side of the value chain was, and remains, dominated by small-scale producers and distributors. In the central region, production expanded into mountain areas through shifting cultivation. We found that the Vietnamese watermelon value chain is integrated with the Chinese market, which influences both the supply and demand sides of the watermelon industry in Vietnam. Additionally, we found that the northern region, which has become a consolidation spot for watermelons due to the increase in the volume of trade with China, has evolved into a distribution node for other agricultural products as well. As a result, the emerging cross-border watermelon trade influences not only the watermelon industry but also the entire agricultural product distribution system in Vietnam.
