Promoting processing and consumption of agricultural, forestry and fishery products in Nghe An
(Baonghean) - In order for agricultural production to develop commensurate with its potential, Nghe An needs to identify truly suitable and effective solutions. Nghe An Newspaper interviewed Mr. Nguyen Van De - Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development on the issue of developing agricultural production associated with the processing industry and product consumption.
PV:In recent years, Nghe An agricultural production has made great strides. Can you share an overview of this issue?
Mr. Nguyen Van De:Nghe An has a large area of agricultural land,agricultural productsrich, large in volume and high in quality. In recent years, the agricultural production value has regularly reached nearly 40,000 billion VND. The total area for annual crops is over 350,000 hectares, of which nearly 225,000 hectares are food crops, with grain crop output of over 1.2 million tons. In addition, Nghe An also has great potential for industrial crop products such as tea (8,500 hectares), rubber (10,000 hectares), oranges (5,200 hectares), nearly 1,500 hectares of pineapples, etc.
With the advantage of large land area, favorable geographical location, traffic infrastructure being invested and developed, rich resources, in recent times Nghe An has planned and developedraw material areaConcentrated agriculture such as tea, sugarcane, rubber, fruit trees... It can be affirmed that we have a lot of potential to produce and process agricultural, forestry and fishery products (AFF), develop OCOP products, and provide quality products to the market.
In the coming time, the province will continue to develop agriculture in a green and clean direction, creating a large volume of high-quality goods to meet the increasing demand of the market, increasing the amount of products that meet the standards for consumption in supermarkets, large domestic distribution systems and for export.
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PV:What results has Nghe An achieved in processing to increase product value, as well as promoting trade and finding stable outlets for agricultural products, sir?
Mr. Nguyen Van De: Nghe An Provincial People's Committee has issued the Project on developing the agricultural, forestry and fishery processing industry until 2020; Project on increasing the added value of agricultural, forestry and fishery products in the period 2016-2020, with a vision to 2030.
Up to now, the whole province has nearly 15,000 agricultural, forestry and fishery processing establishments, creating jobs for about 30,000 regular workers. It can be said that the industryagricultural and forestry processingNghe An's aquaculture has exploited its potential and strengths for development, contributing significantly to the province's export turnover and socio-economic growth. In 2021, we had a sugar output of over 140,000 tons; over 13,000 tons of various types of dry tea; nearly 70,000 tons of cassava starch; 8,000 tons of dry rubber latex, over 60,000 tons of seafood processing...
In particular, in addition to Nghe An Food Joint Stock Company, the number 1 enterprise in Vietnam and Asia in exporting fruit juices and nutritious drinks, in 2020, TH Group built a factory to produce purified water and process fruit juices and herbal drinks; Nghe An also signed a memorandum of understanding with Dong Giao Food Export Joint Stock Company to plant and build a fruit juice processing factory with a capacity of 40,000 - 60,000 tons of fresh fruit/year...
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| Nghe An has abundant agricultural resources, many types of agricultural products have been put into concentrated processing. Photo: Phu Huong |
At the same time, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development has implemented a number of effective trade promotion programs, actively supporting the consumption of agricultural products by the people. Organizing agricultural - forestry - fishery production and processing units to participate in fairs and exhibitions, to introduce, promote and connect product consumption with consumers nationwide and internationally. Actively searching for markets, connecting to bring clean agricultural products to large supermarket systems across the country such as BigC; Vincommerce; MM Mega Maket; ... Clean food store systems Bac Tom - Hanoi; An Phu - Da Nang ...
Nghe An agricultural products have been exported to nearly 120 countries and territories, including many "difficult" markets such as the US, Japan, etc. The total export value in 2021 reached over 343.22 million USD.
PV: However, the problem of processing as well as finding a stable source of consumption for agricultural products still does not meet practical requirements. According to you, what difficulties and challenges are we facing?
Mr. Nguyen Van De: Currently, the scale of agricultural production in Nghe An is still small and scattered; processing enterprises are generally limited in production capacity, such as capital, technology and equipment, skilled labor, management capacity, etc., leading to reduced competitiveness in the market.
In fact, Nghe An's agricultural, forestry and fishery processing products are not rich and diverse, the designs are not attractive, the quality is not high, the volume of goods is not large, and brand development has not been focused on. Meanwhile, Nghe An's climate is quite harsh, so it is not favorable for growing some types of crops. High technology can be applied, but the cost of products will be high, making it difficult to compete with similar products from other localities.
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| Rich agricultural resources in terms of aquatic products, crops and livestock. Photo: Phu Huong |
PV: So in the coming years, what solutions does Nghe An advocate to improve processing capacity and find stable, high-value markets for agricultural products, sir?
Continue to develop the agricultural, forestry and fishery processing industry in a direction suitable to the market and associated with high-tech agricultural raw material areas for stable and sustainable development; create products with comparative advantages and high competitiveness. Select groupsmain productsNghe An has advantages such as processed milk, tea, wood crafts, herbal tea, fruit juice, rice, meat... to prioritize development with many different types of technology to diversify products, meeting market demand.
The province will focus on planning and building a number of industrial-agricultural complexes, specialized industrial clusters, and industry-linked clusters with synchronous infrastructure investment; focusing on Phu Quy area and some districts in the West. At the same time, developing GAP safe agricultural material areas, focusing on dairy cow, beef cow, pig, and poultry farming areas; vegetable and fruit production areas; and industrial crop material areas to form a closed product value chain.
In September 2021, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development signed an agreementproduct consumptionagricultural products on the VOSO.VN e-commerce platform of Viettel Group. This is considered an inevitable trend today, helping businesses expand their product consumption channels to large markets, creating conditions for easy access and connection between manufacturers and consumers across the country; creating conditions for the circulation of goods, transparency in prices and quality of consumer goods with many forms of sales with many outstanding advantages.
This is one of the solutions that Nghe An has prioritized and will develop in the coming time. At the same time, continue to promote trade promotion activities, advertise and introduce products through newspapers, radio, websites, build product brands, and increase exports to foreign markets.
PV:Thank you!
