A consumer shops for VinEco products (Source: Internet)
Hanoi (VNA) - Vietnam needs to develop a supply chain for cleanand safe farm produce, an important step to increase sales, prevent priceslumps and promote safe agricultural production, experts say.
According to Dao Van Ho, Director of the Trade Promotion Centre for Agricultureunder the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the supply of safefarm produce remains too weak to meet demand.
He said that there are around 700 supply chains for safe farm produce includingvegetables, fruits, tea, pork, egg, rice and seafood products in 50 provincesand cities.
Still, demand for safe farm produce is much higher, Ho said. The supply of safefarm produce is not diverse enough and lacks adequate stores for consumers tovisit.
This is a part of the reason why many agricultural products struggled in salesand faced strong drops in prices, as in the recent cases of banana in thesouthern province of Dong Nai, watermelon in the central province of Quang Ngaiand pork oversupply crisis.
“It is critical to promote the supply chain for farm produce in an effort torestructure the agricultural sector towards increasing added value andsustainable development,” Ho said.
From the viewpoint of a distribution company, Dao Ngoc Nam, chairman of An VietCompany said that many localities had quality farm produce but have not paidadequate attention to promotion and product design in order to attract buyers.
In addition, the lack of certificates made it difficult to get products on theshelves of supermarkets and restaurants, Nam said. He added that many farmersand producers were still not well aware of the importance of qualitycertificates.
Vu Thi Ha, Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and RuralDevelopment of Hai Duong province, said that policies to encourage safe agriculturalproduction following standards like VietGap and GlobalGap were needed, besidesenhancing the linkage of trading enterprises with farmers and producers toestablish supply chains.
Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Vu Van Tam said that twoimportant aspects of establishing supply chains are ensuring product qualityand promoting distribution networks.
Trading companies and retailers play a significant role in the supply chain ofsafe farm produce, according to Mamiya Chiyo, consultant to the JapanInternational Cooperation Agency (JICA)-funded project of promoting safevegetable production chains in the northern region.
She said at a conference on December 25 that retailers are the bridges betweensupply and demand. They play an important role in supervising quality andquality to ensure that demand is met.
The five-year project which would be implemented until July 2021 wouldenhance the capacity of supervising and managing safe farming production,developing good models of safe farm produce following GAP standards andenhancing awareness about producing and using safe products.
Nguyen Huu Hung, head of Yen Phu Cooperative, said that before cooperating withVinEco, sales of its farm produce had been unstable.
VinEco helped Yen Phu maintain strong sales with stable prices.-VNA
VNA
