Standardize the quality of agricultural products
The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development informed that, recently, the Department coordinated with relevant departments and branches to organize many conferences to connect supply and demand between businesses purchasing agricultural products (foreign and domestic consumption) with cooperatives and farmers in the province. At the same time, the Department organized many training sessions to implement regulations when exporting agricultural products to potential markets such as Europe, China, Japan, Korea, the United States, etc, creating conditions for the province’s agricultural products to access foreign markets.
Since the beginning of 2023, the Department of Industry and Trade has supported more than 100 businesses to participate in fairs and exhibitions inside and outside the province.
The entire Long An province currently has nearly 30,000 hectares of land with perennial crops, mainly fruits such as dragon fruit, lemon, jackfruit, durian, mango, etc. These are the province’s key products, forming a concentrated production area to serve the domestic and export markets.
Director of Provincial Department of Crop Production, Plant Protection and Quality Management of Agricultural Products – Nguyen Van Cuong said that in recent times, the Provincial Agriculture sector has focused on supporting businesses, cooperatives and farmers in building area codes to serve the export of potential crops. To date, in the province there are 288 area codes with a total area of over 13,734 hectares, exporting to markets such as Korea, Japan, USA, Australia, New Zealand, EU, Russia, UK, China.
The agricultural product with the most area codes is dragon fruits, followed by lemons, watermelons, bananas, durian, mangoes, sweet potatoes, etc. In addition, the whole province has 163 packaging establishments with granted codes, of which dragon fruit has 109 establishments; lemon has 31 establishments; banana has 2 establishments; jackfruit, durian, mango have 21 establishments.
Tan Thanh district currently has over 2,069 hectares of land planted with fruit crops, mainly jackfruit, durian and lemon, concentrated in Tan Lap, Tan Ninh, Nhon Ninh and Tan Thanh communes. In order to find stable output for agricultural products and build its own brand, the district coordinates with industries to create conditions for farmers to build area codes and packaging facility codes.
Tan Thanh district currently has 3 area codes for durian exporting to China
To date, Tan Thanh district has built 5 area codes, of which 3 for durians, 1 for watermelons exporting to China and 1 for seedless lemons exporting to Europe. At the same time, the district has 2 area codes for rice for domestic consumption; 6 cooperatives and cooperative groups achieved VietGAP certification and 1 mushroom production facility achieved organic certification.
Mr. Nguyen Van Hoang (Tan Lap commune, Tan Thanh district) shared: “With nearly 2 hectares of durian more than 6 years old, my family received support from the local government and functional agencies to build area code to meet the requirements of the export market. To be granted area code, my family cultivates according to the technical procedures of the authorities, uses fertilizers and pesticides according to the allowed list and keeps a full production diary.”
Promote e-commerce
Besides traditional distribution channels, recently, e-commerce has become a new distribution channel to help farmers, cooperatives and businesses strongly promote the consumption of agricultural products. When participating in e-commerce, farmers, cooperatives, and agricultural enterprises have the opportunity to expand the number and target audience of customers. Buying, selling and regulating goods from surplus to shortage can take place flexibly and quickly. The connection and consumption between the parties is carried out through professional shipping units.
PURE Production and Trading Company Limited (Tan Long commune, Thu Thua district) specializes in producing cajuput essential oil under the Con Yeu brand and is one of many units taking advantage of e-commerce to market products. Director of PURE Production Trading Company Limited – Nguyen Quoc Vu said: “Currently, the company sells through many distribution channels, including e-commerce. The trend of businesses and retailers is multi-channel sales, promoting online sales in addition to optimizing traditional sales channels. When participating in e-commerce platforms, the company can easily promote products and reduce costs in the sales process.”
Products of PURE Production Trading Company Limited on the e-commerce platform managing by the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development
According to Director of Provincial Center for Industry and Trade Promotion – Pham Van Phong, to effectively bring agricultural products to e-commerce platforms, farmers need to pay attention to the production stage to ensure quality, design, and meet safety standards VietGAP, GlobalGAP, etc. Preliminarily and processed products must have labels, declaration of conformity, clear information, etc. On the other hand, products must ensure uniformity and consistency of product images on e-commerce platforms.
Currently, the whole province has over 50 booths registered with over 485 products displayed on e-commerce platforms. In addition, the Department of Industry and Trade also coordinates with the Provincial Post Office and Viettel to support agricultural production households, business households, cooperatives, agricultural enterprises, etc in the province to promote their images, develop products and brands on e-commerce platforms (https://postmart.vn, https://voso.vn). To date, there are over 63,200 organizations and individuals selling on these two e-commerce platforms with over 7,650 registered products.
In addition, the Department introduces and promotes typical products and OCOP products of the province through Zalo and Facebook groups; builds traceability software for typical products of the province.
Strengthen advertising and trade promotion
Since the beginning of 2023, the functional sectors have support businesses, cooperatives, and economic entities to participate in fairs in Hanoi, Can Tho City, Lao Cai, Hau Giang, etc; connecting the Long An Dragon Fruit Association with the APEC BCI Trade Association on purchasing and investing in products, along with many other programs and policies to help businesses expand consumption markets.
The Department of Industry and Trade informed that, since the beginning of 2023, the Department has supported over 100 businesses to participate in fairs and exhibitions; supported many businesses to receive survey delegations and connect directly with many businesses from China and Korea; etc.
Workers process and package agricultural products (mangoes) for export
As one of the businesses that regularly participates in trade fairs and exhibitions inside and outside the province, Vuon Nha Minh One Member Company Limited (Tan Binh commune, Tan Tru district) spreads products made from Moringa to customers near and far.
According to Director of Vuon Nha Minh One Member Company Limited – Pham Ngoc Anh Tuan, thanks to the support from the Department of Industry and Trade, the company has the opportunity to promote its products at trade fairs and exhibitions inside and outside of Vietnam. From these fairs, the company has more customers and signed many contracts.
Deputy Director of Department of Industry and Trade – Chau Thi Le informed that recently, the Department organized a conference to connect logistics businesses in the field of e-commerce. The conference took place in a friendly and open spirit. Provincial departments, branches, localities and businesses exchanged a lot of content about the latest trends and updates in the fields of logistics, e-commerce, import and export.
“In addition, implementing the Trade and Support Industry Promotion Program of Long An province, since the beginning of 2023, the Department has supported businesses, cooperatives and OCOP entities with information such as time to harvest agricultural products for e-commerce platforms; guidance for agricultural production households to put products on e-commerce platforms; guidance for agricultural households to register accounts and put products on e-commerce platforms” – Ms. Chau Thi Le said.
With existing potential and advantages, the strong participation of functional sectors has opened up new prospects in linking, promoting agricultural products, thereby helping them have more consumer markets, reducing the risk of falling prices when entering the peak harvest period./.
By Bui Tung – Translated by Q. Thien
Long An Online – news.baolongan.vn
