Red River Delta promotes high-tech agricultural products

The Red River Delta region has many agricultural products and local specialties. However, it has not found stable markets, requiring trade fairs to introduce a wide range of high-tech agricultural products to consumers and promote consumption.

Despite being famous for many local specialties such as litchi, longan and rice, brand development for the farm produce is lagging behind. In addition, although many products have been exported successfully, they still face seasonal price drops in the domestic market. Therefore, supply-demand connection activities and solutions to seek stable output for agricultural products are mentioned as necessary.

To promote trade in local products, a fair themed, “High-tech and safe agricultural products in the Red River Delta region in 2018”, was held in the northern province of Ha Nam from June 15-21, with more than 300 booths of associations and enterprises from some 20 provinces and cities. Ha Nam is one of the pilot provinces focusing on attracting investment in high-tech agriculture. As a result, many large enterprises have invested in and developed high-tech agriculture in the province.

According to Truong Minh Hien, deputy chairman of the Ha Nam People’s Committee, the exhibition aimed to introduce a wide range of high-tech agricultural products, expand cooperation in high-tech agricultural production, and promote consumption of safe farm produce. The fair was also an opportunity for businesses to intensify exchanges in order to establish safe markets for agricultural products. Such exchanges will provide businesses with opportunities to study customers’ needs and tastes in order to improve product quality and develop new products to enhance competitiveness in domestic and foreign markets.

At the fair, each province and city displayed unique products. Hung Yen Province attracted attention with products processed from turmeric starch, while Ha Nam Province exhibited the fungus cordyceps roberti and melon. Ninh Binh Province displayed burnt rice products cooked from native rice varieties.

The fair also attracted the participation of many big businesses in the agricultural sector, such as VinEco with its high-quality vegetables produced in greenhouses, Hapro with famous rice varieties like Japonica and Thang Long red wine, and Dabaco with clean pork products.

The fair provided participants with valuable opportunities to seek orders and sign contracts.

Nguyen Thi Hai Thanh, deputy general director of Hapro, said Hapro would focus on producing high-value agricultural products, such as cashew nuts, coffee, pepper, rice as well as handicrafts. With processing capacity of 45,000-50,000 tonnes per year, the company’s Dong Thap rice is sold in many countries like the Philippines, China, Indonesia, Malaysia and European states. In the future, Hapro will expand its export markets to other countries in Africa and the Middle East. She also said this year’s fair provided an opportunity for the company to expand its domestic market, especially in Ha Nam Province, by introducing the company’s products to consumers.

Dao Van Ho, director of the Trade Promotion Center for Agriculture under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, praised the fair for supporting marketing and promoting consumption of agricultural products. He said the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has recently presided over and coordinated with relevant ministries, departments and agencies to implement many tasks, solutions and measures to promote the development of high-tech agriculture, contributing to accelerating the restructuring of the agricultural sector.