Nghe An: Connecting supply and demand, promoting consumption of local products

Overview of the Conference on connecting supply and demand for products consumed in the cooperative economic sector. Photo: Thanh Phuc

The conference was attended by hundreds of enterprises, cooperatives, production facilities, distribution enterprises, food chain stores... from 10 provinces and cities in the country. Typical products include: Clean fruits (guava, melon, squash) from Hanoi; Phu Tho sour meat, dried powdered deer antlers, instant jellyfish, peanut oil from Ha Tinh province; Bao La bamboo and rattan from Thua Thien Hue province; Trieu Phong clean rice, Cua pepper, and yeast rice from Quang Tri province...

According to the report of Nghe An Cooperative Union, the province currently has 780 cooperatives, of which about 46% are operating effectively. Cooperatives have focused on improving the capacity of producing goods and services, building chains linking production with product consumption; boldly investing capital, science, and high technology in agricultural production such as greenhouses, net houses, dryers, etc., thereby producing and supplying the market with many safe products, with origin, origin of goods, stamps, labels, and barcodes that ensure standards.

By the end of 2019, the whole province had 48 OCOP products ranked 3 stars and 4 stars, including many products of the cooperative economic sector and cooperatives.

After 3 years of implementing the trade promotion program, 12 units and 12 products of Nghe An have been present in the markets of the Northern provinces; 150 cooperatives have participated in trade promotion programs inside and outside the province.

Delegates visit the exhibition booths of cooperatives participating in the conference. Photo: Thanh Phuc

Besides the achieved results, the process of implementing trade connection activities between Nghe An and other provinces and cities still faces many difficulties and obstacles.

The reason is that the production of agricultural products is still fragmented and small-scale, and the management of product quality during both the cultivation and circulation process is still limited. Households and cooperatives producing goods and agricultural products still follow traditional practices, many types of agricultural products do not meet the requirements of registration procedures, quality inspection, payment methods, product designs and packaging... The support for businesses and localities to grasp the supply and demand in the market is not timely, leading to some products being produced with oversupply, large oversupply affecting prices, making it difficult to consume...

Many product consumption contracts between cooperatives, enterprises and partners were signed at this conference. Photo: Thanh Phuc

At the conference, many comments from cooperatives said that all levels and sectors need to strengthen direction, coordination and support provinces and cities to implement and orient well the planning of production, livestock and crop production areas; build linkage chains in production, processing and consumption of high-quality agricultural, forestry and fishery products, ensuring sufficient supply to meet the needs of people nationwide; Promote the development of trade infrastructure systems, allocate funds, organize effective trade promotion programs, especially regional linkage programs, support product consumption between provinces and cities across the country.

At the same time, promote the application of e-commerce; sign cooperation agreements to promote brands, promote trade and consumption in domestic and foreign markets for agricultural products and specialties of localities...

At the conference, cooperative units and enterprises between Nghe An and other provinces signed contracts and memorandums of understanding on product consumption.