In recent years, Vietnam’s agriculture has gained certain development, making important contributions to the export sector of various agricultural commodities, especially rice and catfish. However, this development remains short of fulfilling the sector’s full potential; one of the reasons is the absence of a successful value chain for agricultural products.
One important measure to develop the value chain of agricultural products is to encourage trade enterprises to participate. Currently, there are still many difficulties hindering enterprises when participating in the agricultural value chain relating to activities of trade promotion, production stimulation, ensuring product quality and reasonable price for consumers. The trade companies’ role is under-appreciated. This has made it more difficult for the catfish industry. In addition, the role of rice buyer is also not been recognized properly despise purchasing over 93 percent yield.
To solve this problem, recently in Can Tho, the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) in collaboration with the Vietnam Catfish Association, VPbank held a seminar on “Solution to enhance the role of trade companies in the value chain of rice and catfish in the Mekong Delta”. The seminar has outlined problems and requirements of trade companies to processing plants and farms in light of the mission of developing more stable markets for high quality Vietnamese catfish. On the other hand, it also has touched upon requests from processing companies to catfish export companies to fulfil the task of building a successful Vietnamese catfish industry.
According to Dr Vo Hung Dung, Vice President and General Secretary of the Vietnam Catfish Association, in late 2014, catfish products’ export price rose compared with the same period in 2013, however market share declined in key markets such as the US and EU. As required in the catfish industry restructuring, Vietnam catfish should focus on high-level market segment rather than trying to dominate the low-priced market segment as it was doing now.
Current situation in the rice value chain in Mekong Delta reflected weaknesses such as production was fragmented and of small scale; the application of advanced science and technology, the mechanization of production stages and post-harvest technology remained limited and were not given proper attention. In addition, rice seeds used by farmers often were leftover from the previous season; the ratio of area using certified rice seeds although had made much progress but remained generally low (35 percent). There was no rice breed of high and stable quality, resistant to disease as well as no new effective cultivation process which led to inconsistent yield and rice quality. Review by experts of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) also showed that Vietnam’s rice was abundant, of low quality, high price, poor export image, unattractive to importers and investors.
Those problems in the rice value chain led to high cost of production, generally low quality and poor competitiveness. The “four-house collaboration” in production and consumption was ineffective and limited.
According to Mr Vo Hung Dung, there were about 94 trade companies involved in catfish export, key products including: frozen fillets accounted for 24.5 percent, cut fish 13.7 percent, added-value products and by-products over 12 percent, with key markets: ASEAN, Hong Kong and China.
At the seminar, participants pointed out the benefits of trade companies such as the presence of export intermediaries may be more beneficial than self-export; helping overcome the problem of high cost of international trade; strengthening the links between domestic firms and export markets.
As predicted by the Vietnam Food Association, the rice market’s prospect for the coming year would be promising but also facing many difficulties due to competitive pressure from other rice-exporting countries in all high, middle and low level segments. Thus, rice and catfish processing and export enterprises must start an internal transition to adapt to the increasingly stringent requirements of the market. Trade enterprises would participate in the distribution system of these two sectors on the basis of associating with domestic producers and foreign customers to provide market information, negotiate contracts and supply products as required.
Dr Pham Thi Thu Hang, Secretary General of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), said: To accommodate the growing market and the process of globalization, trading companies would have no choice but to expand as well as develop and diversify their products and services. Services relating to the production chain, manufacturer consulting and management support will help businesses in the rice and seafood sectors reduce production costs and improve competitiveness on international markets.
Thu Ha
Đăng ký: VietNam News
