Cooperatives must connect farmers with businesses: Deputy PM

A strawberry farm in Đà Lạt City in the Central Highland province of Lâm Đồng. The farm also offers ecotourism services to introduce agriculture products to foreign and domestic visitors. — VNA/VNS Photo Phương Hoa

HÀ NỘI — Deputy Prime Minister Vương Đình Huệ has highlighted the leading role of cooperatives in connecting farmers with businesses, working towards promoting strong and effective agricultural production and consumption. 

Addressing the 3rd National Farmers Forum in Hà Nội on Sunday, which was part of activities in the “Proud of Vietnamese farmers” programme, Huệ stressed that it is necessary to fully tap the potential of each region and locality, and enhance links between the domestic and foreign markets.

The Government promises to perfect policies to foster agricultural development, trade and investment promotion, he said. 

Huệ praised the organisation of the forum and its theme, saying that Việt Nam currently has 10 farm products with export turnover of over US$1 billion. 

Việt Nam has also witnessed remarkable events within the agriculture sector, especially as the country held the world rice conference for the first time. 

Meanwhile, Chairman of the Việt Nam Farmers’ Union Thào Xuân Sùng emphasised the great and proud achievements of the agriculture sector over the past 32 years of reform.

The export of farm products has recorded continuous growth, creating impressive breakthroughs, he said. 

In the first four months of this year, the export value of Việt Nam’s vegetables and fruits surpassed that of crude oil. The country’s agro-forestry-aquatic product exports are forecast to reach $40 billion in 2018. 

Sùng also mentioned challenges facing Việt Nam’s agriculture sector such as climate change and the internal difficulties of the national economy. 

At the forum, participants voiced their concern about how to improve the quality and image of Vietnamese agricultural products and expand more markets for farm produce while reducing production cost and prices. They also discussed policies to cope with the protectionism measures in importing countries. 

Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Lê Quốc Doanh underlined the need to build brand names for Vietnamese farm produce, saying that it is necessary for Việt Nam to improve the quality and ensure food safety of agricultural products if it wants to build sustainable trademarks.

He added that the ministry has built a project to develop 15,000 new-style cooperatives, which are expected to help farmers develop their production and make it easier for them to sell their products. 

Director of the Trade Promotion Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade Vũ Bá Phú said the trade ministry and other relevant ministries will promote Vietnamese trademarks to international markets through Việt Nam’s agencies abroad.