美国土豆农民着眼东南亚市场
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Potato Logistics: U.S. Agriculture Producers Eye Southeast Asia
As demand grows, so do the supply chain challenges, especially for perishables
By
Erica E. Phillips
June 3, 2015 6:21 p.m. ET
Oregon potato-promoter Jim Cramer recently returned from what he called a “potato mission trip” to Vietnam.
He and a handful of Pacific Northwest producer-packers and government officials attended a food trade show in Ho Chi Minh City in April. They hired a local celebrity chef, Dieu Thao, to write a potato-based recipe book, and she prepared some of her dishes live for sampling at their booth.
“In Asia, rice is king,” Mr. Cramer said. “But they are familiar with potatoes.”
More than just familiar, in fact. Last year, the U.S. exported $3.6 million-worth of frozen French-fry potatoes to Vietnam, up from less than $150,000-worth a decade ago.
As the Southeast Asian economy expands and young people’s tastes become more global, the market for American products has grown. But U.S. agriculture producers face unique logistical challenges in delivering those goods to consumers in those markets, especially with demand growing so quickly.
Dwight Wilder, a senior representative of the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Ho Chi Minh City, said agriculture exports to Vietnam have grown every year but one since the U.S. and Vietnam normalized diplomatic relations in 1995. In 2014, they topped $2.3 billion, which was 100 times the $23 million in agricultural products the U.S. sent there in 1995.
“If you look at a chart, it looks like a mountain going straight up,” Mr. Wilder said.
But that “mountain” of goods meets challenges when it reaches Vietnamese shores.
Potato exports to Vietnam, especially frozen French-fry spuds, have been growing as local tastes have become more global. ENLARGE
Potato exports to Vietnam, especially frozen French-fry spuds, have been growing as local tastes have become more global.
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“In an emerging market like Vietnam, things don’t work in a clean-cut fashion,” said Barry Horowitz, an international trade and logistics consultant who works with the Port of Portland in Oregon.
Products might inexplicably get lost or damaged as they go through customs, he said. Old roads and choked local traffic conditions mean goods can take longer than expected to get from one place to another. And available space in cold storage facilities—a necessity for perishable agricultural products like potatoes—isn’t always easy to come by.
Emerging Southeast Asian markets—Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia, for example—are more challenging than domestic or established foreign markets because basic processes and infrastructure, which many producers take for granted elsewhere, just aren’t there yet.
Mr. Horowitz said producers need to have contacts on the ground whom they trust, and can communicate with easily. Foreign markets like Vietnam are “out of your sight, but they cannot be out of your mind,” he said.
It helps that local buyers and a growing group of logistics providers in Vietnam are enthusiastic about doing business with American producers, he said.
The U.S. has something of an advantage over other large competitors there because American products have a sound reputation. U.S. potatoes, for one, are seen by many as safer than those coming from China, Vietnam’s main trading partner.
Recent Chinese food scares, from contaminated baby formula to tainted dumplings and expired meats, have made customers wary of that nation’s exports. That opinion is shared by some Chinese. A 2013 Pew Research survey conducted in China found that 38% of the Chinese public believed food safety was a “very big problem,” up from 12% in 2008.
Amanda Welker, a marketing manager with the Oregon Department of Agriculture, says agriculture producers (of potatoes, blueberries, Christmas trees, among other things) in her state are trying to get into Southeast Asia’s markets early. “The buyers who are able to import are a pretty small group,” Ms. Welker said. “So if you can get to know those people in the beginning, before the market grows, it puts you in nice position.”
In some cases, they’re laying the foundation for those relationships before the markets have even opened up. In Vietnam, for example, there’s growing demand for blueberries from the Pacific Northwest. Officials there have yet to allow fresh blueberries in to the country (they currently allow only dried and frozen blueberries), but that’s expected to change very soon. And with the help of people such as Mr. Wilder, U.S. growers’ representatives have been able to connect with potential buyers and gather information on the needs, opportunities and constraints in the market.
Ms. Welker said some growers she works with have been hesitant to enter emerging markets at first, but they’ve had good success. Once they try it out, she said, “they become raging fans.”
Write to Erica E. Phillips at erica.phillips@wsj.com