Increasing competitive advantage for Nghe An agricultural products

(Baonghean) - With its own advantages, Nghe An has a rich and diverse source of agricultural products. Facing the integration trend, what to do to improve the quality and value of agricultural products and increase competitiveness in the market is a concern of the province as well as farmers.

Small scale production, fragmented products

With a closed process, starting from cows imported from world-famous dairy farming countries such as New Zealand, Australia..., advanced breeding formula, and modern processing line, TH milk is one of the superior products, produced according to a modern closed production chain.

Mr. Ngo Huy Han - Communications Director of TH Milk Factory said: Right from the first step of feeding, the cows have been classified into groups to have a suitable diet. The barns apply the most advanced standards and specifications of livestock barns in the world. Along with that, TH applies a herd management software system, attaching chips to cows to closely monitor all health parameters, comfort and milk yield. TH also has modern applications to support the production of clean milk such as milk measuring machines, automatic milk quality testing, and classification of substandard milk for immediate disposal.

Winter vegetable production in greenhouses in Hung Dong commune (Vinh city).

However, there are not many closed production lines in our province. Once a key export product to Eastern European markets, but now increasing the value of tea is still a concern for those in charge. With over 4,300 hectares of industrial tea, Thanh Chuong district is an area with good, clean and safe raw materials; however, in addition to domestic consumption, tea has only been exported to easy-going markets such as Pakistan, China, and India in the form of "packaging" and there are no refined products to export to demanding markets.

Mr. Le Dinh Thanh - Vice Chairman of Thanh Chuong District People's Committee is concerned: Not only 54 private tea processing factories have outdated and small equipment, but also the production lines of 2 tea factories of Nghe An Tea Company also produce simple and crude tea products. There have been a number of enterprises that have come to survey to invest in modern production lines to produce high-end products, meeting export standards to demanding markets such as Japan, Korea... but they are all private enterprises, not large in scale and do not meet local expectations as well as the practical requirements of modern production.

Facing the integration process, it can be said that Nghe An agricultural products still have many shortcomings. Only a few products such as milk, sugar... are organized in a chain from production to market. Due to fragmented and manual production, the cost is high, the quantity of each product is small and not concentrated, which is a disadvantage when participating in the market. Meanwhile, the quality of products is not competitive enough with foreign countries and even other localities due to both production and processing and preservation; the number of enterprises investing in the agricultural sector is still small, small scale, limited competitiveness, low efficiency.

Increase competitive advantage

In recent years, by identifying and developing key crops, gradually promoting production linkages according to the value chain of advantageous products of the province such as rice, corn, peanuts, tea, sugarcane, etc., the quality and prices of many products have been improved, many crops have brought in income of up to over 1 billion VND/ha/year such as oranges, tangerines, etc.

According to Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mr. Nguyen Van Lap: In order to improve the value and competitiveness of Nghe An agricultural products in the domestic market and for export, it is necessary to first review all agricultural products of the province, classify them according to usage and consumption market, and from there, have production orientation and solutions to ensure quality to meet market demands.

“We classify to clearly identify each type of export product such as tea, peanuts, rubber, tapioca starch... to which market it will be exported; Nghe An rice is not a production area for export, but a production area for domestic consumption, so we must clearly identify the needs and tastes of domestic consumers in terms of sugar content, aroma and stickiness, from which we can propose appropriate solutions in terms of varieties, techniques and market access”. - Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development said.

Tea harvest in Thanh Chuong.

In particular, in the context of limited investment resources of the province and the participation of enterprises, the industry has advised the province to select a number of key products with strengths such as peanuts, oranges, tea, etc. to focus on investment, creating a clear growth momentum for Nghe An agriculture first. At the same time, review the processing stage with processed products such as tea, rubber, etc. to find solutions to improve processing capacity in a modern direction. It is expected that this year, the province will have more advanced rubber processing lines invested in and built by Nghe An Rubber Investment and Development Company on existing rubber raw material areas. The province and localities are also focusing on calling on enterprises with real potential to invest in building modern processing lines with other products such as tea, sugarcane, etc.

In production organization, there are currently two trends: leasing land to enterprises for large-scale, concentrated production and the trend of linking enterprises and farmers. In its conditions, Nghe An must follow both directions, both allocating enough land area for enterprises to be proactive in part of the raw materials, thereby playing the role of a center for high-tech application, transferring techniques to farmers; and focusing on improving the capacity of cooperatives and cooperative groups to represent farmers in cooperating with enterprises in production and product consumption.

Phu Huong