BANANA and other ingredients of vegetal origin in the Vietnamise street food - BANANA y otros ingredientes de origen vegetal en la comida callejera vietnamita

Vietnam in the heights, in the area of Dalat, northeast of Ho Chi Minh City. Here too, the tradition of street food is expressed by each local ingredient. In this video, a woman frying banana in soy oil, battered in a rice flour together with soy milk and black sesame seeds. Extraordinary afternoon snack!

LICHI de Vietnam a Canadá - LYCHEE from Vietnam to Canada

El lichi  (Litchi chinensis) vietnamita responde a los estándares de requisitos de la Agencia de Supervisión de Alimentos de Canadá, informó Rex Yu, representante de Manley Sales, empresa importadora canadiense de esa fruta. Dio a conocer que el primer lote de lichi vietnamita fue enviado el l0 pasado al país de América del Norte por vía aérea. El lichi vietnamita es dulce y de buena calidad, valoró Rex Yu y adelantó que su empresa pretende distribuir este producto agrícola en numerosas tiendas en todo el país durante una semana. Expresó el deseo de que la fruta vietnamita pueda lograr una proporción de mercado en Canadá, al igual que la fruta de dragón y el longán frescos de este país indochino importados por Manley Sales.
Fuente::http://es.vietnamplus.vn  

Land use planning for agriculture in Vietnam - Ordenamiento territorial para la agricultura en Vietnam

Vietnam approves master plan on hi-tech farming zones

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/30/Map-of-Vietnam-Divisions.svg/2000px-Map-of-Vietnam-Divisions.svg.png

The Vietnamese government has approved a master plan for hi-tech agriculture zones through 2020, to put domestic farming on the sustainable development track and ensure national food security, Vietnam News Agency reported Thursday.

Besides previously-approved hi-tech farming parks in the southern province of Hau Giang and the central province of Phu Yen, another eight will be built in Ho Chi Minh City, the two northern provinces of Thai Nguyen and Quang Ninh, the central province of Thanh Hoa, the central province of Khanh Hoa, the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong, Ho Chi Minh City, the southern province of Binh Duong and the southern city of Can Tho.

Farming zones applying technological advances dedicated to coffee trees are mostly in the Central Highlands, northwest and north central regions.

Meanwhile, the plan designates areas for green tea in Thai Nguyen; oolong tea in Lam Dong; dragon fruit in Binh Thuan; and vegetables in Lao Cai, Hanoi, Hai Phong, Ho Chi Minh City and Lam Dong.

Flowers will be grown in Lao Cai, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Lam Dong and fruit for export will be grown in the southeast and Mekong Delta.

Son La, Hanoi, Nghe An and Lam Dong will gear towards dairy cow farming, and the Red River Delta, Mekong Delta, northeast and north central regions will adopt hi-tech innovations in fowl breeding. Hi-tech pig raising will be developed in the Red River Delta and the southeast.

Shrimp farming zones will be predominantly in the Red River Delta, Mekong Delta, north central, coastal south central and southeast regions.

By 2030, studies on zoning off hi-tech agriculture areas will be conducted in Lao Cai, Phu Tho, Son La, Hanoi, Hai Phong, Nghe An, Ba Ria-Vung Tau and Tien Giang, among others, to assess the impact of the program.

Source: http://www.globalpost.com, Xinhua News Agency, http://www.hortidaily.com

TPP deal could isolate Argentina, Brazil and Venezuela - El Tratado Trans-Pacífico podría aislar a Argentina, Brasil y Venezuela de la economía global

When President Barack Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met in Washington last week to discuss creating the world’s biggest trade bloc with 10 other Pacific Rim nations, most Latin American countries didn’t pay any attention. But they should have.

Image source: http://academic.evergreen.edu

The proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which would include some of the world’s biggest economies on both sides of the Pacific and may seek to counter China’s growing economic clout in the world, could shake up Latin America’s economies. If TPP materializes, it could help some Latin American countries — notably Mexico — and could further isolate Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela from the global economy.

The Obama-Abe meeting at the White House was described by U.S. officials as critical to unlock disputes between the two countries over automobiles and agricultural issues, which were slowing down the three-year-old TPP talks. Japan, the world’s third-largest economy, would be a key partner of the trade, investment and regulatory agreement.

A joint statement at the end of their meeting said that Obama and Abe had made “significant progress” in their negotiations. Obama is trying to obtain “fast-track” negotiating authority from the U.S. Congress to sign a TPP trade deal without subsequent congressional amendments, but faces opposition from some Democrats who fear the agreement could hurt U.S. jobs.

“The politics around trade can be hard in both our countries, but I know that Prime Minister Abe, like me, is deeply committed to getting this done, and I’m confident we will,” Obama told a news conference after the meeting.

If the TPP becomes a reality, it would account for about 40 percent of the world’s economy. In addition to the United States and Japan, the TPP negotiations include Taiwan, Singapore, Australia, Canada, Mexico, Peru and Chile.

Economists tend to agree that, within Latin America, Mexico would be among the most to benefit from the proposed agreement. Mexico is highly integrated into the U.S. economy, and Mexican factories that produce auto parts and other goods for U.S. multinationals would benefit from greater U.S. exports to Asia.

But Chile and Peru, the other two Latin American countries participating in the negotiations, may not benefit that much. Chile already has trade agreements with all TPP member countries, and would face new competition from Vietnam and other Asian countries for its exports of foods and vegetables to the U.S. market.

But the biggest losers would be Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela, and other countries that have relied on commodity exports, and that badly need to diversify their exports to grow in the long term. If they are left outside TPP and other proposed mega-trade blocs in Europe and Asia, they would be further isolated within the global economy.

“Latin American countries that are left outside these global mega-trade blocs will find it more difficult to get access to the world’s biggest markets,” says Osvaldo Rosales, the leading trade expert with the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). “They will face customs and regulatory hurdles.”

Central American countries, which already have free trade agreements with the United States, are worried that a TPP deal would put them at a disadvantage with cheaper Vietnamese exports of textiles, coffee, bananas and pineapples to the U.S. market.

Costa Rican President Luis Guillermo Solis told me in an interview that Central American presidents have been talking among themselves about the need to get more information from Washington about the TPP negotiations. The TPP talks have been taking place “in rigid secret,” he complained.

“But we must prepare ourselves because we are small countries with weak economies and small populations. Faced with these big international changes, we must be permanently ready to face these challenges very rapidly,” Solis said.

My opinion: I agree. Latin American countries, which account for only 8 percent of the world’s trade, are running the risk of becoming an even smaller slice of the global trade pie unless they move rapidly to join one or more of the world’s biggest trade blocks.

The world may soon be divided in three mega-trade blocs that are currently being discussed: the Pacific Rim’s TPP, the U.S.-European Union Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and the China-Japan-India Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).

Some Latin American countries — Mexico, Chile and Peru — are already participating in one of them, the TPP. As for Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela and others, they will find themselves cut off from the world’s biggest markets if they remain asleep.

Source: Andres Oppenheimer (http://www.desertsun.com); www.freshplaza.com

VIETNAM. Evolución optimista de la producción de frambuesa, frutilla y arándano - Optimistic evolution of raspberry, strawberry and blueberry production

Frutos rojos extranjeros cultivados en Vietnam

Des framboises de Dà Lat. Photo : Net/CVN

 

Aunque más barato, la calidad es igual a la de la fruta extranjera. Las frambuesas se cultivan en el distrito de Duc Trong, en la provincia de Lam Dong (Tierras Altas Centrales). La fruta llega a Ho Chi Minh City todos los días muy fresca y firme. Se plantan en invernaderos de tecnología extranjera, y la higiene y la seguridad alimentaria están totalmente aseguradas, de acuerdo a Anh, de la frutería HQL de la ciudad Ho Chi Minh.

Según un representante del Centro de Extensión Agrícola de Lam Dong, varios agricultores de los distritos de Duc Trong y Lac Duong lograron cultivar frambuesas y obtener varias cosechas en el año, produciendo un centenar de toneladas.

Además de las frambuesas, los agricultores Lam Dong también cultivan fresas, con variedades de Nueva Zelanda y Francia. "Hemos tenido todo el año, pero los cultivos más importantes son los de invierno y la primavera", dijo Nguyen Thanh Chung, que se especializa en fresa de Nueva Zelanda. El kilogramo se vendió a 300.000 VND, mientras los 850 gramos de fresas importadas se venden a 550.000 VND.

El cultivo de arándanos se está probando actualmente para garantizar la calidad de la fruta, y el precio es similar a la fruta importada. Hasta ahora, el único punto débil radica en el tamaño de la fruta, pues la fruta importada es más grande y más bella.

Fuente: Le Courrier du Vietnam (http://lecourrier.vn). Traducción: Best Fresh - Mejor Fresco!