THỊ TRƯỜNG VÀ LỢI THẾ SO SÁNH CỦA SẢN XUẤT NGÔ LAI Ở ĐỒNG BẰNG SÔNG CỬU LONG

In the Me Kong river Delta Vietnam, the domestic maize cultivation is of not only the opportunities but also the challenges in comparative advantages with imported maize which has low - trend price in recent years. In 2014, the volume of imported maize moved up to, at 3.87 million tons, at value of one million USD. The largest volume of maize imported from Brazil was 1.99 million tons in 2014, with very high competitive price at 5,355 VND per kg. The questions are posed as following: “How about comparative advantages of hybrid maize production in the MRD in comparison with imported maize (?)”, and “Should producing maize in the MRD substitute or reduce imported maize (?)”. The survey on 360 farmer households in provinces of Long An, Dong Thap and Hau Giang figured out that: (a) The unit price of maize in the 2013 - 14 crop was relative high at 4,300 VND /kg because total costs of production was high at 33.1 million VND per hectare, and the average yield was still low at 7.7 to 8.3 tons per hectare. (b) Cost of seed occupied 8.6% of total costs, at 2.7 million VND per hectare and cost of fertilizers was at 30 - 35.5%, around 11 million VND per hectare. (c) Cost of mechanization was at 5.0 - 8.7% and high intensive labor accounted for 38.2% of the total costs; around 12.7 million VND per hectare. These were the main factors that affected to unit price of maize. (d) About 27.5% of farmers produce maize at unit price higher than the price of imported maize from USA in 2013, about 5,000 VND per kg. Unit price in Winter Spring 2013 - 14 was 4,478 VND per kg, particularly it was high in Long An at 5,400 VND per kg. Meanwhile, maize cultivation is more comparative advantagous in Dong Thap and Hau Giang because the unit price is lower than in Long An, at 3,473 - 4,554 VND per kg. There are about 21% of maize farmers who have signed contracts with the animal - feed enterprises.