As of August 31, 2021, Operating Group 970 of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has connected 1,344 focal points providing agricultural, forestry and fishery products, processed products, etc.

Packing Agricultural Products Combo

“The market can only meet, when we optimize the utility for consumers, optimize production. Consumers sitting at home also have agricultural products delivered to their places. Experience the convenience, people will start ordering. Opening aggregate demand will open aggregate supply.”

Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan emphasized so at an online forum with 63 provinces and cities on Connecting production and consumption of agricultural products to adapt to the new situation, on August 31. 2021.

EVERY DAY, NEARLY 50,000 COMBOS DELIVERED TO CONSUMERS

With the ordering website https://htx.cooplink.com.vn, with combo packages of 10kg of agricultural products, Operating Group 970 of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development helped sell goods to every household in Ho Chi Minh City. and Binh Duong.

In the first 2 weeks of implementation, the average amount of agricultural products people ordered per day was 300-400 tons. On the morning of August 31 alone, 43,000 combo packages were ordered and delivered to Ho Chi Minh City. Ho Chi Minh City, Binh Duong. At its peak, up to 55,000 orders were placed in just 10 minutes.

However, the number of orders is still much lower than the supply capacity of 1,344 clues. Calculating capacity, the agricultural product combo package of Operating Group 970 can provide 55% of agricultural products to Ho Chi Minh City, Binh Duong, with an output of about 2,100 tons.

Mr. Paul Le, Vice Chairman of Central Group shared, from the suggestion of Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Tran Thanh Nam, Central Group cooperated with Operating Group 970 to support the consumption of tens of thousands of agricultural combo products packs to people in Ho Chi Minh City, Binh Duong and Dong Nai. In addition, Central Group has 13 supermarkets in 3 southern provinces and cities.

“We will support local authorities and people to collect orders and organize delivery of goods to serve people in a fast time and ensure good product quality,” Mr. Le pledged.

According to Mr. Nguyen Anh Duc, General Director of Ho Chi Minh City Union of Commercial Cooperatives (Saigon Co-op), this unit is benefiting a lot from the programs of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Operating group 970.

Mr. Duc said Saigon Co-op has been present in 47/63 provinces and cities and will strengthen connections with local agricultural products. Currently, Saigon Co-op is implementing many different sales channels, in line with the trend and epidemic situation. In addition to the electronic floor, there is also a package to buy together, go to the household market. Supply centers will form agricultural product floors, developing in the direction of onlineisation.

OPTIMIZING UTILITIES FOR CONSUMERS

According to Mr. Dinh Minh Hiep, Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Ho Chi Minh City, from August 23, Ho Chi Minh City has implemented to tighten social distancing for 15 days. Therefore, many trading systems face difficulties and lack of human resources to maintain the supply of agricultural products.

The program “purchasing support” was implemented with the participation of many forces: the army, the police, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, and local authorities.

However, the number of orders from people is still low compared to the supply capacity of partners, while many people reflect that they have not been able to access the program “purchasing support”.

One of the reasons for that is lack of information, lack of space for interaction and connection between producers, buyers and sellers. Another reason is that the network, the online ordering interface has not been able to meet the large number of orders, and needs to be improved and upgraded.

Faced with this fact, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development suggested that it is necessary to strengthen the upgrade of the online purchase and sale registration system, promote the implementation of the combination with online delivery applications. Warehouses must be established in the area to facilitate the coordination of supply packages.

Because at present, supplies are concentrated in only a few locations, so there is often an overload in the delivery and receipt of goods by the force “purchasing support”, while the distance to bring goods to people’s houses is too far, causing more delivery time and labor cost.

Operating group 970 proposed related units to promote information technology application, pilot program of good agricultural production for buyers, based on electronic production diary recording. From there, they are assigned to large supermarkets, helping the buyer to understand the production process, and take the basis to build the planting area code.

Mr. Nguyen Hoang Anh, Standing Vice Chairman of Vietnam Digital Agriculture Association, said that in the future, the agricultural industry will face many challenges because the supply chain will collapse due to loss of support and lack of raw materials, input production materials, thereby leading to production stoppage or low quality production.

Therefore, it is necessary to establish an e-commerce platform for agricultural products and e-commerce markets, connecting all producers and suppliers of agricultural products to consumers. The Executive Team of this program needs to share online data, including buyer data, seller data, volume, and output, so that the more sellers, the more buyers come together.

Minister Le Minh Hoan shared: “I remember the first time I went to Hanoi, it was very far away. Now sitting in the capital, the heart of the country, talking directly with 63 bridgeheads feels very close. Saying that to see technology help us solve many problems, together find a way. Technology 4.0 connects people with things, so why not connect mangoes, bananas, connect agriculture?”.

Through this forum, growers and farmers will better understand market rules and market signals to find ways to respond. In the past we sold what we had, now we sell what the market needs. The agricultural product consumption centers will send out signals, thereby stimulating farmers to develop the code of planting areas and farming areas, firmly grasp the market of 100 million people in the country, and then expand abroad.

“The market can only respond when we optimize convenience for consumers and optimize production. Consumers sitting at home also have agricultural products delivered to their places. Experience the convenience, people will start ordering. Opening aggregate demand will open aggregate supply. We need to absorb this simple story, so that the steering committee for market development and market promotion can make appropriate decisions,” said Minister Le Minh Hoan.