Part 1: More 'fishing rods' for people in the highlands
For the people, the term "digital economy" is very strange. However, in recent years, when going to the market every day, from selling chickens, pigs or bamboo shoots, or bunches of cabbage, they have known how to accept payment by QR code or bank transfer; using social networks to livestream selling agricultural products on the fields; knowing how to put rattan weaving, brocade, embroidery on the internet to promote and consume products... Since then, agricultural, native and forestry products of the people have become known to many people, many people have ordered and sold many products, have more income, have more "fishing rods" to eliminate hunger and reduce poverty...
Thanh Phuc - Hoai Thu • September 25, 2024
For the people, the term “digital economy” is very strange. However, in recent years, when going to the market every day, from selling chickens, pigs or bamboo shoots, or bunches of cabbage, they have known how to accept payment by QR code or bank transfer; using social networks to livestream selling agricultural products on the fields; knowing how to put bamboo weaving, brocade, embroidery on the internet to promote and consume products... Since then, the agricultural, native and forestry products of the people have become known to many people, many people have ordered and sold many products, have more income, have more "fishing rods" to eliminate hunger and reduce poverty...
We, reporters with our professional characteristics, with a period of time measured in decades and countless working trips to the highland people, can clearly see that change. The Western region of Nghe An has changed a lot. There is still poverty, but the backwardness has gradually receded. Nghe An has 21 districts and towns, of which the highlands account for 11 with 252 communes and mountainous towns. Of which, 107 communes and 1,188 villages and hamlets are particularly difficult; 27 communes bordering Laos with a border length of more than 468 km; the population accounts for 36% of the whole province with 5 main ethnic minorities, including: Thai, Tho, Kho Mu, Mong, O Du.
About 10 years ago, to reach a commune or village in the highlands, it took 1-2 days to travel, and in many places, one had to travel by river or stream through rapids and waterfalls. To contact officials, the people had no other way but to "go to every alley, knock on every door". Farmers who grew squash and picked bamboo shoots had difficulty selling them for money when there was no market and the roads were far away. They raised black pigs and black chickens but only for their own use, not knowing who to sell them to, so poverty continued to haunt them.
But now, even though thousands of kilometers away, with just a phone call, or even a video call, you can meet the villagers who are farming in the deep forests and mountains.agricultural products, just need to take a photo, record a video and post it online to have people order and sell the product. Those miraculous changes, according to old lady Vi Thi Moong, Tam Thai commune, Tuong Duong border district, "are things that have never happened before".
Coming to Tam Thai market (Tuong Duong), it is not difficult to see from the man selling "underarm" pigs to the woman selling bamboo shoots or the woman selling taro, all have QR codes stuck on their baskets, baskets, and cages. After buying 2kg of taro for 80,000 VND, with only 500,000 VND left in her pocket to return, Ms. Vi Thi Moong, a vendor at Tam Thai market, replied: "I did not prepare small change so I do not have any change. Can you scan the QR code to transfer 80,000 VND to my account?", after a moment of surprise, I quickly opened my phone and scanned the code. There was a message, Ms. Moong happily smiled: "You received it".
According to Ms. Moong, now, when selling chickens, bamboo shoots, potatoes, etc., people all accept payment by bank transfer or scanning code. Almost everyone has it.QR codeto scan the code, have an account number to transfer money, have a text message to notify whether the money has been transferred to the account or not. “There are older people who are not very familiar with it, so they scan the QR code here, the money automatically flows into the cards of their wives and children at home. When the money arrives, the phone “ting” to notify that it has been received. Very convenient,” said Mr. Vi Van Thang.
Nowadays, people who sell chickens, bamboo shoots, or potatoes all accept payment by bank transfer or scanning. Most people have a QR code to scan, an account number to transfer money, and a text message to notify them whether the money has been deposited into their account or not.
Having a phone and internet has helped Mrs. Moong "transfer money from bamboo shoots and local pigs into her account", and for Ms. Vu Y Mua (Muong Long commune, Ky Son district), the internet has helped her receive money sent by her husband who is working as a laborer in the South every month. Previously, if she wanted to spend money on anything, she had to go to town to withdraw cash or transfer money to someone else to receive cash, which cost a fee. "The money my husband sent back was in my bank account. If I wanted to buy milk, diapers, or pay electricity bills, taxes, funds, or school fees for my children, I had to withdraw cash, or transfer money to someone in the commune and then receive cash, but I had to pay a fee", Ms. Mua shared.
Now, electricity bills, tuition fees, or buying milk or instant noodles can all be transferred to service providers, without having to use cash like before.
Ms. Vu Y Mua, Muong Long commune (Ky Son)
For nearly a year now, the chain of stores selling food, groceries, gasoline, and agricultural supplies of Mr. Bui Cong Chung (Hamlet 2, Hoi Son Commune) has been accepting payments by card, at a rate of 30-50%. According to Mr. Chung, paying by card has many conveniences, firstly, transferring the correct and full amount to be paid, without having to give change or return the change; secondly, it is easy to control the payment because of the transaction checking function. Thanks to that, although we do business in many areas and have a large number of customers, but only the two of us, we still manage the cashiering well; especially, we do not have to wait to pay, so we can shorten the time; and with transaction checking, there are no disputes about payment errors...
Although he is nearly 80 years old, Mr. Luong Van Huan in Bong village (Thanh Son commune, Anh Son) still works diligently every day with his traditional weaving craft. What is special is that the products such as rattan trays, rattan chairs, brooms, trays, winnowing baskets... that he makes are all filmed and broadcast live on his personal Facebook page, with pictures taken and the specific price of each item pinned on them. After someone places an order, he will ask his son to deliver the goods; if the customer is far away, he will send the goods by bus. Thanks to that, although he only produces on a small scale at home, he has a stable customer base, and many of the products he makes are based on pre-orders from customers.
Previously, Thai people growing sweet eggplant and tomato wedges in Thach Giam town, Tuong Duong border district, could only rely on traders for consumption. But since the development of social networks, almost everyone has a Facebook, Zalo, and TikTok account, so people have known how to use them to livestream and sell agricultural products online. Ms. Luong Thi Hien - Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Thach Giam town said: "In Phong village, there are over 3 hectares with 25 households participating in growing clean vegetables, focusing on indigenous crops such as: citrus tomatoes, sweet eggplants... with an output of up to tens of tons/year. Production according to VietGAP standards, these are specialties favored by the market. However, in the past, people only knew how to make products, and the output and consumption were left to traders and retailers at local markets. In recent years, when social networks developed, with the support of local authorities, people have changed their thinking and working methods, knowing how to put agricultural products online to find markets for consumption."
Accordingly, the process from planting, caring until harvesting has been filmed by many households or broadcast live on personal pages, through groups, tagging friends... Thanks to that, the clean vegetable brand of Ban Phong is known to consumers, many people are connected with modern retail systems for consumption, many orders in neighboring districts, in Vinh city... come to the villagers. Therefore, during the harvest season, Ban Phong vegetables, especially tomatoes and sweet tomatoes, are carefully packaged and shipped everywhere by refrigerated trucks.
The process from planting, caring until harvesting has been filmed by many households or broadcast live on digital platforms, making the clean vegetable brand of Ban Phong known to consumers and connecting orders. During the harvest season, Ban Phong vegetables, especially tomatoes and sweet tomatoes, are carefully packaged and shipped everywhere by refrigerated trucks.
“There are more orders, no fear of unsold products, and the selling price is higher than when importing wholesale to traders, so people are very excited. In the first crops, when it was time to harvest, the Vice Chairman of the Town People's Committee, the Chairman of the Farmers' Association, the Youth Union, and the Women's Union went to the fields to guide people on how to livestream, how to close orders, how to interact with customers... At first, only young households responded, but gradually, one household learned from another and now, almost everyone knows how to sell agricultural products online,” said Mr. Luong Van Toan, a clean vegetable producer in Phong village.
There are nearly 6.5 million results appearing in 0.30 seconds when typing "Hoa Tien Brocade" on Google, showing the wide "coverage" on the internet environment with products of the traditional craft village of the Thai people in Hoa Tien (Chau Tien commune, Quy Chau). With flexibility and sensitivity in grasping the market, Ms. Sam Thi Tinh, daughter of Ms. Sam Thi Bich, Director of Hoa Tien Brocade Craft Village Cooperative, has successfully promoted products and developed the Hoa Tien brocade brand through digital platforms. In particular, making the most of the utilities of social networks to introduce and promote products. Designing a business website with an eye-catching form, diverse information content, easy purchasing and payment methods. At the same time, building a professional, responsible sales method, aiming at customer satisfaction. The delivery, packaging and preservation of products are also focused on, ensuring product quality when reaching customers. Online sales contribute a lot to the revenue of craft village cooperatives.
Hoa Tien brocade is not only popular in the domestic market but also ordered by overseas Vietnamese and exported to Laos, Thailand and foreign tourists, all thanks to promotion on digital platforms. Sales on the 4.0 technology platform have helped the cooperative consume more than 40% of the products made. In addition, currently, the products of Hoa Tien brocade cooperative have been digitized under the program "Support for building profiles and managing OCOP product data, digitizing products and building a traceability system according to the OCOP product value chain" of the Department of Science and Technology.
Accordingly, by using 3D/360 smart interactive exhibition software to digitize OCOP products with software features: System management subsystem - Content management subsystem - Virtual reality tour subsystem - Automatic explanation subsystem - Automatic tour subsystem on all platforms, the products build digital content including: Introducing the unit with the product, product origin (site space, production and product display place); product information in Vietnamese and English; programmed interactive features on the 3D/360 digital map platform... With just one click on the link, all information about OCOP products of Hoa Tien brocade craft village cooperative will be displayed with vivid images by 3D technology, attractive commentary that is very attractive to viewers. Thanks to that, it creates an impression on customers, helps the cooperative have data when introducing to foreign partners without having to bring cumbersome records, books, and papers like before.
Many products of craft villages in mountainous districts of Nghe An such as Hoa Tien brocade (Quy Chau), Muong Long embroidery (Ky Son), bamboo and rattan weaving of Ban Diem (Con Cuong), beef jerky, sausage, sour meat... thanks to making good use of digital platforms for promotion, not only serve domestic consumption but are also known to many people abroad, with many products being exported to foreign markets through unofficial channels. Most recently, the Ban Diem bamboo and rattan weaving craft village cooperative received orders from Europe for thousands of rattan baskets and decorative baskets. To get this order, in addition to the careful design, use of local materials, environmental friendliness, ensuring green consumption criteria, it is partly thanks to the digital platform when the products of the craft village are promoted on Facebook, put by experts on e-commerce platforms, handicraft product groups... In addition, many Vietnamese people abroad when knowing about the bamboo and rattan products of Diem village also place orders.
I am currently living in Germany. When I saw the bamboo and rattan products of Ban Diem on a friend's Facebook, I asked my friend to order them for me. When I brought them to Germany, my relatives and friends here found them convenient and beautiful, so many of them wanted to buy them too...".
Ms. Hoang Thi Anh Duong, a Vietnamese in Germany
Clearly identifying the role of digital transformation in promoting and consuming agricultural products, the province has recently implemented many activities to promote this activity with the goal of innovating, enhancing the value and competitiveness of local agricultural products. In particular, building an e-commerce platform to introduce and promote products in the province to consumers across the country and the world.
In the past 2 years, the Department of Industry and Trade has supported 21 districts, cities and towns to open district-level booths on the Nghe An e-commerce trading floor with more than 266,373 participating households, with a total of 8,836 products on the floor, ranking 5th in the country in terms of the number of agricultural products on the floor. Among them, there are many products of the mountainous people such as: brocade, beef, sausage, bamboo and rattan weaving...
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