| Co.opmart Supermarket joins hands to distribute Hai Duong agricultural products MM Mega Market: Accompanying Hai Duong farmers during the epidemic period |
Sir, in 2023, what is the forecast for Hai Duong's agricultural output? How has Hai Duong's Industry and Trade Department planned to consume it?
Hai Duong is a traditional agricultural province with abundant agricultural output. Estimated output in 2023 includes: 720,000 tons of rice; winter vegetables (kohlrabi: 180,000-200,000 tons; carrots: 80-100,000 tons; onions and garlic: 80-120,000 tons). For fruit trees, Thanh Ha lychee: 65,000-67,000 tons; guava 75-80,000 tons; custard apple 15-20,000 tons; longan 12-15,000 tons.
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| Mr. Nguyen Van Quang - Head of Trade Management Department - Department of Industry and Trade of Hai Duong province |
With such output, we have built a consumption plan for each type and each season. For lychee, we have planned and on May 24th, we plan to organize a lychee trade connection conference to invite localities, businesses, and ministries to the locality, creating connections very early. It is forecasted that this year, lychees will ripen in June.
Following that, on May 31, we will coordinate with the Trade Promotion Agency to organize an online conference with 4 other provinces and cities to join the Ministry of Industry and Trade and Vietnamese Trade Offices abroad to introduce Hai Duong agricultural products to countries and customers to support consumption, not only domestically but also for export.
For the domestic market, in previous years, what percentage of total consumption did the consumption volume account for? How do you evaluate the potential of the domestic market for local agricultural product consumption?
It can be generally stated that Hai Duong's agricultural products are mostly consumed domestically. The annual agricultural output is mainly supplied to the provinces of the Red River Delta (concentrated in Hanoi) and some southern provinces. The remaining exports are only focused on some typical and specialty products. For example, carrots account for about 80%.
For lychee, we export about 20-30% every year, the main market is China. Besides, there are Japan, Korea, EU, Middle East… but the output is not much. Therefore, most of the agricultural products are still consumed domestically.
We always believe that the domestic market is still a potential market with a lot of room. I believe that many Vietnamese consumers like to eat Thanh Ha lychee because of its long-standing brand. Therefore, the domestic market is still a potential market and we always advise the provincial leaders to make good use of the domestic market.
We also go through many channels, the most important of which is creating links between distribution businesses, businesses with a chain of stores, and retail experience to connect with the locality. Local authorities also create conditions and corridors for businesses to develop.
In addition, in recent years, Hai Duong has paid great attention to trade promotion and digital platform linkage. Lychee farmers have directly brought their products to e-commerce platforms such as Sendo, Lazada, and Postmart. We also guide people to livestream and sell on social networks and have brought results when the transportation service is very developed, in a short time, the products have reached consumers.
With those activities, in 2021 and 2022, large lychee regions sold very well and there was no phenomenon of good harvest and low prices.
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| Lychee is the main fruit of Hai Duong. |
Compared with the export market, what do you think are the advantages and disadvantages of consuming agricultural products domestically? How can these disadvantages be resolved?
Regarding advantages, firstly , agricultural products in the domestic market have much more convenient delivery and payment methods than exports.
Second, the interaction between sellers and buyers, easy transportation support due to the same language, culture and understanding of the market, is much more convenient compared to exporting.
Third , other countries set up very strict technical barriers. When FTAs come into effect and tariff barriers are removed, countries set up technical barriers and farmers cannot meet them overnight. Therefore, domestic consumption is also more favorable because it does not have to face technical barriers.
However, besides those advantages, the difficulty in consuming agricultural products in the domestic market is due to fragmented production, still following farmers' customs. Farmers are producing and selling what they have without researching what the market needs.
In addition, the development of traditional markets from the past to the present has led to people being mainly self-sufficient. Agricultural products from production sites to cities are mainly consumed in large cities and concentrated residential areas.
Regarding connectivity, the Government previously decided to support the connectivity of 4 and 5 businesses, but I think the most important connectivity is between retail businesses and farmers. This needs to come from both sides, especially in the context that our large businesses are not many, and there is no support for agriculture, capital, intensive farming, and consumption to create long-term prestige.
Not to mention, many farmers are willing to give up long-term contracts for immediate benefits. Therefore, although this association has changed over the years, it has not changed much. That is the Achilles heel that we need to overcome.
With that mindset, the Department of Industry and Trade of Hai Duong is trying step by step to create connections between businesses and producers. Land and agricultural policies need to create real businesses, create concentrated business areas so that domestic consumption and export are also much more convenient.
Processing is considered an important solution to increase the value of agricultural products, expand consumption opportunities, especially agricultural products with short harvest times. So how has Hai Duong implemented this activity in the past and what specific results have it brought?
It must be affirmed that processing agricultural products is very important, especially seasonal agricultural products. In Hai Duong, we also recognize this importance, but for now, we pay more attention to preliminary processing and preservation, reducing post-harvest losses. Hai Duong makes the most of the Government's support incentives in Decree 57/2008 on mechanisms and policies to encourage enterprises to invest in rural agriculture.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade also has policies to support industrial promotion, including support for the application of new machinery and equipment, and the transfer of advanced technology in the preservation and preliminary processing of agricultural products. Even drying and cold storage projects can be utilized and applied to the maximum extent to businesses.
In 2022, industrial promotion funds were supported for 3 businesses to use machines to wash, can, and bottle pre-processed agricultural products. For products that can extend the harvest time such as lychee, some establishments have been supported to increase the preservation time, with initial success. This year, we continue to apply pre-processing and preservation to bring agricultural products further.
Thank you!
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