Opportunities and challenges for the fresh straw mushroom value chain development in Vietnam

Straw mushroom sector has been strongly growing in Vietnam since last decade with
more th an 64,500 tons/year of production. The development of the sector helps improving both
farm household's income and the environment by reducing pollution from rice straw buming at
the end of the rice cuItivation season. Basing on the potential of the sector, Vietnamese
govemment issued an agricultural development programme in 2010 in which mushrooms will be
the focus to develop as one of five national strategie commodities. ln order to help the sector
reaching this goal and growing more sustainably, the study was carried out in 2014 and 2016 to
identify its opportunities and challenges by analysing stakeholders in the fresh straw mushroom
value chain. The study was carried out through different meetings among the main actors of the
straw mushroom value chain in August 2014 in Can Tho and in 2016 in Dong Nai province,
Vietnam, to get opinions of target groups, key persons, as weil as information conceming the aims
of the study. An analysis of the main stakeholders was conducted to identify opportunities and
challenges for the sector to grow more sustainably. Low investment costs, depending on
production scale, quickly received income circle, low land and labour effort use are the main
opportunities for farmers while limited use of improved productionlprocessing technologies,
limited production due to the seasonal character and c1imatic conditions are the main challenges
for the other stakeholders of straw mushroom value chain. To enhance the use of hi-technology in
production, preservation and processing and to build a brand for the Vietnamese straw mushroom
are proposed to improve the current issues of the sector.