Hanoi accelerates promotion of agricultural goods

Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Over past years, the agricultural sector in Hanoi and other localities have implemented solutions to improve the value of farming produce while promoting consumption in domestic and foreign markets.

Among these solutions include stepping up trade promotion activities for farm produce, building brands and enhancing sustainable linkage chains to support businesses and cooperatives in finding and expanding markets.

Deputy Director of Hanoi’s Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Ngoc Son said that his department has teamed up with localities to bring hundreds of tonnes of the city's farming produce and that of other provinces and cities into supermarket systems, convenience stores and selling points under the One Commune One Product (OCOP) Programme.

It has also implemented measures to support businesses to promote the consumption of essential goods through e-commerce channels, Son said. 

He added that the municipal, agricultural sector would promote trade promotion activities and connect tourism promotion with programmes advertising agro-forestry-fishery products.

At the same time, it will develop raw material areas to serve processing factories and expand markets for advantageous products such as high-quality rice, late-ripening longan and bananas.

Nguyen Quoc Toan, Director of the Agricultural Products Processing and Market Development Department, said the agricultural sector had thus far this year helped numerous agricultural products be placed on shelves of supermarkets such as Big C, AEON, Hapro and Winmart. 

It also facilitated the presence of farming produce on reputable e-commerce platforms, including Alibaba, Amazon, Sendo, Voso and Shopee.

Meanwhile, the authorities have coordinated with embassies and the Vietnamese trade offices overseas to establish channels intended to provide the latest information on key export markets such as Japan, the Republic of Korea, the US, Europe and China. This will help localities and exporters assess and forecast the market and promptly draw up effective solutions. 

According to Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Tran Thanh Nam, besides proposing localities to develop processing industries, the ministry has focused on implementing solutions to boost production to ensure domestic supply and serve exports. 

The ministry is co-ordinating with authorities and businesses to facilitate border trade activities, accelerate customs clearance procedures, and prevent stagnation of goods, Nam said. 

He added that it also paid attention to solutions to support trade promotion activities, diversifying goods distribution methods, and stimulating domestic consumption to prepare for harvest seasons.

Nam suggested localities that are home to sizeable raw material areas take initiatives to support the consumption of agricultural produce and avoid goods stagnation.

They should also update information on the production and circulation of agricultural products in the locality to adjust production plans according to market demand.

On the other hand, associations, industries and businesses need to closely co-operate with functional agencies of the ministries of agriculture and rural development and industry and trade to speed up the volume of goods consumed in the local market and develop more production linkages to stabilise the prices of agricultural produce, according to Nam. 

To promote the consumption of agricultural products, state management agencies should support businesses to issue traceability stamps, said Bùi Thị Hạnh Hiếu, general director of Bao Minh Business Agricultural Products Processing JSC in Hanoi.

For her company, Hieu added, it will focus on building high-quality rice material areas, investing in deep processing and building its brands to expand consumption in the domestic market and targeting export outlets later. 

Besides the assistance of authorities and agricultural sectors, businesses need to focus on improving product quality, diversifying direct and online sales channels to cut costs and bring their products to consumers easily and conveniently, said the head of the Vietnam Retailers Association Vu Thi Hau.

Chairman of Dong Giao Foodstuff Export JSC Dinh Cao Khue agreed. He said his company had facilitated technology appliances in the deep processing of passion fruit for the official export quota.

In 2020, Dong Giao Foodstuff's unofficial quota of passion fruit exports accounted for 75 percent of its total export. This figure was 25 percent in 2021.

Thanks to the promotion of the official export quota, the price of products increased to 20,000 VND from 7,000-10,000 VND per kg./.