Enhanced programme: Farmers work in a paddy field on the outskirts of Hanoi. The capital city is promoting the development of coded quality and safe, specialised farming areas associated with traceability. — AFP
HANOI: The capital city is promoting agricultural exports by developing a chain from production to consumption of export agricultural products, according to the Hanoi Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.
The department said Hanoi now has 35 rice planting areas, 104 vegetable planting areas, 56 fruit tree planting areas, 66 aquaculture areas and 162 livestock areas.
This is the scale for Hanoi to become one of the localities with the potential to export key agricultural products.
Hanoi also has 16 coded banana and longan planting areas and four coded packaging facilities with a daily capacity of 30 tonnes to 50 tonnes of export products in each facility.
In addition, the capital city also has 1,649 products from the One Commune, One Product Programme, including 20 potential five-star products, 1,098 four-star products and 534 three-star products. They include more than 1,000 food products.
It is one of the favourable conditions for the city’s agricultural products to approach strict markets, boosting agricultural exports.
To support businesses and cooperatives in expanding export markets for vegetables and fruits, deputy director of the Hanoi Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Nguyen Ngoc Son, said Hanoi needs to continue coordinating with ministries and branches to strengthen connection and promotion activities for the official export of agricultural products.
It will enhance training programmes for agricultural, forestry and fishery production and its regulations on quality and food safety, in the control of import and export farm produce.
These courses focus on market information, guidance on registering codes for production areas, quarantine regulations and import control procedures in the markets of China, South Korea and Japan.
Hanoi will also promote information on free trade agreements, including the European Union Vietnam Free Trade Agreement and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership and foreign market barriers to improve the quality of agricultural products and meet the increasing requirements of export markets.
Additionally, the city is promoting the development of coded quality and safe, specialised farming areas associated with traceability.
It also focuses on building brands for key agricultural products and ensuring export standards.
In particular, via support for the development of cooperatives, Hanoi has built 141 farming produce production chains, including 59 chains producing animal products and 82 chains producing plant products.
Le Xuan Truong, deputy head of Hanoi’s Sub-Department of Cultivation and Plant Protection, said that the city needs to support cooperatives, businesses and farm owners in applying top-end technology to the production and processing of key commodities for export.
To do this, it must have policies to encourage and support planting areas and packaging establishments in developing the scale of commodity production under the requirements of the importing countries.
Also, it is necessary to support farmers and cooperatives in applying eCommerce to access potential markets around the world.
Nguyen The Lam, director of Khanh Phong Agricultural Cooperative in Me Linh District, said if his cooperative participates in training courses on cross-border eCommerce and marketing, it expects to approach more customers.
Lam said that sometimes guava can only sell for 10,000 dong per kg, but if this kind of fruit is exported, the selling price is likely to increase.
Meanwhile, several cooperatives have continued investment in production to increase their presence and expand export opportunities on a number of fronts.
An example is Dong Tam Livestock and Service Cooperative in Quoc Oai District, which has invested in a closed animal husbandry process.
Besides promoting consumption at wholesale markets and direct exports, the cooperative also provides products for large supermarket systems, such as Coop Mart and Aeon.
The Aeon supermarket chain is widely present in Asia, so Hanoi’s products in this supermarket system is an opportunity to target foreign consumers.
In another development, Dong Phu Organic Agriculture Cooperative in Chuong My District has links with two businesses to build a chain, from production to export, for rice products, with a view to increasing the value of local rice produce and the income of farmers in those areas. — Viet Nam News/ANN
