There are too few agricultural products with established growing area codes.

"Lose at home"?

Like many provinces across the country, Nghe An has strengths in agriculture with key products from cultivation to livestock and aquatic and seafood exploitation. For a long time, Nghe An has been a famous industrial crop material area with coffee trees in Phu Quy in general; tea trees in Thanh Chuong and Anh Son districts; cinnamon trees in Quy Chau and Que Phong districts; rubber trees in Nghia Dan and Tan Ky districts; sugarcane in Nghia Dan and Quy Hop districts; peanuts in Dien Chau and Nghi Loc districts; pineapples in Yen Thanh and Quynh Luu districts; Vinh oranges in Quy Hop and Yen Thanh districts.

However, in recent years, due to difficulties in agricultural production and economic restructuring, although maintaining the production scale, Nghe An has not been able to maintain the position of its key agricultural products. Currently, in supermarkets and fruit stalls, Nghe An agricultural products are still scarce.

A long-time leader at Nghe An Agricultural Import-Export Joint Stock Corporation (Agrimex) said: In the past, although Nghe An agriculture was not yet developed, famous fruit stalls in Vinh City and districts always had Quy Hop oranges or tangerines, Quang Tien pink grapefruit (Thai Hoa Town), Quynh Luu and Nghia Dan watermelons... However, now Vinh oranges are almost only available during the main season. This summer, Nghe An agricultural products only have Taiwanese guava, imported grapes or melons grown in greenhouses to supply clean fruit stalls or OCOP product introduction points. However, due to weak brands and small scale, these products are difficult to promote and replicate.

Meanwhile, fruit products from other provinces such as durian, Dien grapefruit, green-skin grapefruit from the South, avocado (Dak Lak), Phuc Trach grapefruit (Ha Tinh), Cao Phong orange (Hoa Binh), Lai Chau and Son La plums, custard apple (Lang Son)... and high-quality fruits imported from Thailand, the US, and Japan are abundant. Therefore, it can be said that Nghe An agricultural products are gradually losing market share right in their "home field".

Agricultural experts say: Among many reasons, food quality and safety are the most important factors. Currently, agricultural products, especially in the main crop season, are produced in large quantities but in fragmented quantities. In addition, there are many projects and plans in the agricultural sector, especially fruit trees, but due to lack of resources and scattered arrangements, they have not been effective, pesticides are overused, and tree varieties are quickly degraded. In Nghe An, 3 years ago, the province had a Project to develop key plants and animals and a Project to develop citrus fruit trees, but for many reasons they have not been effective.

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An expert at the Nghe An Food Safety and Hygiene Management Department analyzed: Consumer standards have also changed, agricultural products must improve quality and brand, but many agricultural products are declining so they cannot compete and domestic consumers are forced to switch to using imported agricultural products...

The representative of the provincial Department of Crop Production and Plant Protection also admitted: Except for sugarcane, tea, and pineapple, which are maintaining their raw material areas, the remaining agricultural products that are Nghe An's strengths, such as peanuts, lotus seeds, and rubber, have a rapidly decreasing raw material area. This reality makes us not only gradually lose our traditional markets, but also makes it difficult to penetrate the international market segment. For example, in the past, every year during the peanut season, there were dozens of large enterprises, each day several containers coming to Dien Chau and Quynh Luu districts to buy peanuts to process and export to China and India, but now large agricultural export enterprises have almost disappeared. Instead, there are only private enterprises that collect and transport peanuts to sell to agents in Quang Ninh and Lang Son to process and sell to China.

Building growing area codes and traceability stamps

At the training workshop on skills and knowledge of traceability for agricultural products in the North Central region recently held in Vinh City, Dr. Tran Manh Tuyen - expert, senior advisor on Vietnam Anti-Counterfeiting Technology shared an experience and also a survey during a business trip to Europe: Due to a long business trip, he went to a supermarket in Belgium to buy Vietnamese fruits. Unfortunately, looking through all the shelves displaying fruits, there were products from Thailand and Cambodia, but at that time there were absolutely no fruit products from Vietnam. This question made him and his colleagues research and learn that some fresh fruit products from Vietnam could not be exported to Europe because there was no growing area code for traceability. Therefore, it is not excluded that some businesses in other countries have growing area codes, so they are willing to buy Vietnamese fruits, process them, then stick labels and labels on them, and of course, the selling price is many times higher.

Based on the above reality and to facilitate Vietnamese agricultural products to penetrate large markets, the National Assembly issued the Law on Crop Production in 2018, in which Article 64 stipulates the development of growing area codes. On this basis, in 2018, the Prime Minister issued Decision No. 100/QD-TTg approving the Project on implementing, applying and managing the traceability system. After 5 years of implementation, some provinces such as Bac Giang, Hung Yen, Son La, Lang Son, Ben Tre, Dong Thap, Soc Trang, Tien Giang... have built growing area codes for some agricultural products with strengths, along with the application of smart technology, artificial intelligence AI to label, electronic chips to trace the origin of agricultural products, so that they have now entered demanding markets such as the EU, Japan, America,...

The latest challenge for Vietnamese agricultural products since the beginning of 2024 is China, although it is a large and quite easy-going market, this country has announced that it will only import fresh fruits with certified growing area codes from Vietnam. At many forums, representatives of the Department of Crop Production and Plant Protection, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development have confirmed this information and recommended that localities with fresh fruit products exported to China should proactively guide people to build files to build growing area codes and affix traceability codes.

Mr. Pham Van Tho - Chairman of the Board of Directors of Vietnam Anti-Counterfeiting Technology Joint Stock Company said: Granting codes for growing areas and affixing stamps and electronic chips to Vietnamese agricultural products has a full legal basis and the Government has now publicized a number of products and codes for growing areas on the National Online Public Service Portal. To serve the traceability of exported agricultural products, enterprises and cooperatives need to take two necessary and sufficient steps: building a traceability code file for growing areas according to planning, arranging areas, monitoring area indicators, monitoring care processes, using pesticides and affixing stamps and electronic chips to record, store and manage product information. After scanning, this information will be transferred to the TrueData data storage system; then, at each stage, the authorities will retrieve and customers will scan to distinguish them from similar products with fake stamps and labels.

Mr. Nguyen Tien Duc - Head of Nghe An Department of Cultivation and Plant Protection said: Building growing area codes mainly serves the purpose of exporting fruits and implementing the conditions and criteria of the goal of building new rural areas. Recently, Nghe An has supported a number of enterprises and cooperatives to build dossiers, thereby granting trademarks, QR codes, and intellectual property certificates for 222 products. Nghe An is one of the localities with many products under the One Commune One Product (OCOP) Program, but mainly exploiting the domestic market, so cooperatives and households are not enthusiastic about building growing area codes and traceability.

Currently, the guidance on building codes for traceability of growing areas in localities is assigned to the Department of Crop Production and Plant Protection. However, in Nghe An, because farmers have not seen the benefits, no units or products have registered to build codes for growing areas. Localities have only registered models and farms to build production and livestock areas according to VietGAP, GlobalGap standards, organic production models, etc.

Therefore, in the near future, enterprises, cooperatives, and greenhouse model owners should proactively learn about building growing area codes for products for export. Along with strengthening propaganda and raising awareness, it is necessary to have the participation and companionship of enterprises and scientists, and guide farmers to build growing area codes. On the other hand, for sustainable development and market expansion, enterprises and agricultural cooperatives should also get acquainted with ordering stamp codes and electronic chips to easily trace the origin and prevent counterfeit and fake goods; at the same time, improve the skills of introducing, buying and selling products online or livestreaming to introduce products to customers.

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According to the Department of Crop Production and Plant Protection, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the growing area code is an identification code for a growing area to monitor and control production, control pests and trace the origin of agricultural products. The growing area code for fruit trees is at least 10 hectares; for spices, it depends on the actual area of ​​the net house/greenhouse and the requirements of the importing country. For other crops, follow the requirements of the importing country. In case the importing country requires a buffer zone or other requirements on area, follow the requirements of the importing country.