Harvesting cabbages in Kinh Mon town, Hai Duong province (Photo: nld.com.vn) After Hai Duong applied social distancing across the province from February 16,the ministry worked with major distribution systems in the north such asCentral Group (Big C and Go! supermarket chains), Vincommerce (Vinmart andVinmart chains), BRG Retail (BRG Mart supermarket chain), and MM Mega Marketchain to purchase agricultural products from farmers, co-operatives andenterprises of Hai Duong, the ministry said on February 22.
So far, Central Group has purchased 100 tonnes of vegetables and fruits perweek from the province for consumption in its retail system. The volume isexpected to increase to 200 tonnes per week soon.
This week, its GO! and Big C outlets in the North will consume about 70 tonnesof Hai Duong's agricultural products and will increase the sales until the endof the season, the group said.
MM Mega Market Vietnam has ordered 24.3 tonnes of vegetables per day from HaiDuong, including kohlrabi, cabbage and guava for its distribution systems inthe central and southern regions. Vinmart has also ordered some agriculturalproduce.
The ministry has also worked with the Ministry of Agriculture and RuralDevelopment, localities and enterprises to discuss solutions to removedifficulties in transportation and consumption of goods, especiallyagricultural products with a large output and in the harvest season, especiallyin Hai Duong and neighbouring provinces, it said.
According to the Hai Duong Department of Industry and Trade, most COVID-19control stations in neighbouring provinces and cities have restricted entryfrom vehicles going from or through Hai Duong, leaving agricultural producestuck and impacting farmers' livelihoods.
Localities and enterprises have complained that the implementation of therequirement for COVID-19 testing in transporting goods has manyinconsistencies, leading to difficulties in consuming agricultural produce.
Difficulties transporting commodities has also affected production in theprovince and also other localities like Hanoi, Hai Phong and Quang Ninh becausemany commodities in Hai Duong are materials for processing chains at factoriesin the localities, according to the ministry. That will also affect thesocio-economic development of many localities.
Tran Thi Phuong Lan, acting director of the Hanoi Department of Industry andTrade, said distribution systems in Hanoi are making efforts to support HaiDuong to consume agricultural produce, averaging about 100 tonnes per week.
Meanwhile, Hai Duong is implementing many measures to facilitate thetransportation of agricultural produce in the harvest season.
Over the past three days, the province has prioritised the implementation ofCOVID-19 testing for truck drivers and returned the results within 24 hours toaccelerate goods transportation, according to Hai Duong Provincial PartySecretary Pham Xuan Thang.
On February 21, Hai Duong Provincial People's Committee Chairman Nguyen DuongThai sent a letter to Hai Phong City People's Committee to ask for permissionto transport commodities from Hai Duong to Hai Phong.
To facilitate the fastest transportation of goods, especially agriculturalproduce and frozen goods, the Hai Phong City People's Committee was asked toallow trucks with drivers with proof of a negative SAR-COV-2 test result issuedby the Hai Duong Centre for Disease Control to go to the quarantine areasbetween Hai Duong and Hai Phong. After that, the driver in Hai Phong will drivethat truck into this city, reported the Nguoi lao dong (The Labourer)newspaper.
According to the Hai Duong Agriculture and Rural Development Department, about4,080ha of crops with a productivity of about 90,760 tonnes are going to beharvested including more than 55,000 tonnes of onions, 50,000 tonnes of carrotsand 8,000 tonnes of cabbage, kohlrabi, cauliflower and leafy vegetables.
Tran Van Quan, director of the Hai Duong Department of Agriculture and RuralDevelopment, said that farmers in Duc Chinh commune, Cam Giang district hadharvested more than 48,000 tonnes of carrots.
However, social distancing in Hai Duong had made it tough to transport thecarrots from Duc Chinh to ports in Hai Phong.
Besides that, the pandemic had caused many localities to stop transportingagricultural products, including carrots, to Duc Chinh, for processing andpackaging..,
VNA
