Hà Nội enhances effectiveness of agricultural product chains

A safe vegetable production chain of Văn Đức Agricultural Service Cooperative in Gia Lâm District, one of the typical agricultural production chains in Hà Nội. — Photo courtesy of Hà Nội Department of Agriculture and Rural Development

HÀ NỘI — Hà Nội is promoting effective agricultural product chains to bring high economic efficiency to farmers, cooperatives and enterprises.

Those chains also supply safe and quality farming products for both the domestic and foreign markets.

The agricultural production chains play an important role in the sustainable development of the agricultural economy, said Nguyễn Thị Thu Hằng, head of the Division of Quality, Processing and Market Development, the Hà Nội Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

According to the Hà Nội Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, the capital has 159 safe agricultural and food product chains, notably the Khu Cháy rice chain, A-Z pork and the Văn Đức and Thanh Hà safe vegetable chains.

There are many effective linkage models under the production chains, such as a high-quality rice production chain in Ứng Hòa District and another safe vegetable production system in Thanh Trì District.

The production chain model has changed people’s thinking from small-scale production to production linkage, focusing on applying safe production processes, meeting VietGAP standards and following the increasing demand of domestic and foreign markets.

The Thanh Hà Agricultural Production and Service Cooperative in Thường Tín District has invested in a closed high-tech vegetable production chain with an area of ​​1.15ha and is also linked with other farming production cooperatives in the area to supply the domestic market with nearly one tonne of vegetables and fruits per day, said director of the cooperative Bùi Thị Thanh Hà.

“Linking from production to consumption with farmers helps the cooperative control the quality of vegetables and the variety according to market demand,” Hà said.

In the 2024 spring crop, the Đoàn Kết Production and Service Cooperative in Ứng Hoà District produced Japonica rice and high-quality rice meeting export standards over an area of ​​100ha, said Cao Thị Thuỷ, the director of the cooperative.

To maintain the effectiveness of linkage in the rice production chain, the cooperative has signed contracts with 2,181 households in ten cooperatives in neighbouring districts to purchase all rice output for farmers during the harvest season, Thủy said.

To further promote the efficiency of agricultural production chains, director of Bảo Minh Agricultural Products Processing and Trading JSC Bùi Hạnh Hiếu said that localities need to be planning how to apply safe production methods such as VietGAP and GlobalGAP.

This helps ensure product quality, creating advantages for businesses to sign large consumption contracts with stable prices.

In addition, Hà Nội needs to focus on building coded growing areas to trace the origin and have transparent information about production areas and chains, Hiếu added.

Producers also need to partner up with scientists to improve product quality, transparent production processes, thereby retaining customers, said Phạm Thị Lý, director of the Centre for Enterprise Integration and Development, the Việt Nam Association of Small and Medium Enterprises.

On the other hand, Hà Nội should create conditions for local agricultural products and specialties to participate in fairs and trade promotion programmes.

The city also needs to increase loans from supportive funds of the Hà Nội Agricultural Extension Center and Hanoi Farmers’ Association, so the cooperatives and enterprises have more capital to invest in high-tech production of closed chains.

Deputy director of the Hà Nội Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyễn Mạnh Phương said that in the future, Hà Nội will continue to develop agricultural production chains.

Localities have been planning to form large-scale agricultural production areas, attracting enterprises to invest in production linkages and product consumption.

The localities also support the cooperatives in improving management capacity, building production plans, connecting farmers and enterprises in product consumption.

They will regularly review the supply and demand of agricultural products in domestic and foreign markets to help the chains adjust production levels and redirect business if needed.

The enterprises and cooperatives proactively promote products on e-commerce platforms such as PostMart.vn and Voso.vn to increase consumption. They also plan to establish stores for safe agricultural products in some localities to introduce quality products directly to consumers. — VNS