Quality and collective action in supporting and consolidating the development of Hung Yen longan value chain

In the process of integration into WTO and AFTA, the majority of Vietnamese farmers who are involved in small scale production, have to face fierce competition in both domestic and international markets. Therefore the challenge is whether they are able or unable to cooperate with one another to improve their competitiveness in the market. Hung Yen longan is a representative case of fruit production in the Red River Delta. RUDEC / IPSARD has studied its value chain for identifying production constraints and set up scenarios for improving quality management, label, value chain, etc. These scenarios are used as basic tools for building collective action among farmers and creating linkages between them and output stakeholders. With this initiative, the cooperative of Longan was established and operated in three years. It aimed to develop production applying quality management (traceability, Good Agriculture Practice-GAP, Geographical Origin Label, etc.), to supply good quality longan to Hanoi and other area. This research confirms the possibility of small farmers developing their collective actions to improve the quality management and supply market with labeled products