Vietnams hi-tech path towards top quality agriculture

Despite being a world leading exporter of farm produce, Vietnam has exported 90% of its agricultural products in the form of cheap and low quality raw materials.

At present, Vietnamese agricultural products have been exported to around 180 countries, including more fastidious markets such as the US and Australia. Fruit and vegetable exports increased from US$105 million in 2003 to US$3.5 billion last year.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, five-month agroforestry and seafood exports grew by 9.9% to US$15.6 billion on the same period last year. Vietnam is likely to be among the top five exporters of agricultural products in the world.

Numerous difficulties

According to Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuong, many products are being sold on the world market without branding or labelled with foreign brands, which denies domestic farm produce a distinct place in the global chain.

In addition to the limitations of a small and scattered production scale, the agricultural sector is facing a series of problems such as inconsistent standards and poor market organization.

Beyond from the obtained results, Minister and Chairman of the Government Office Mai Tien Dung points out the weaknesses in agriculture as the lack of an extensive business network, an inability to remove obstacles for input materials, low product quality, adapting to technological advances in agriculture, and brand building.

Vu Truong Ca, CEO of Lina Network, echoes Minister Dung’s views, saying that although the agricultural sector has enjoyed many government incentive policies, it often falls into the situation of having a “bumper crop but devaluation” or “poor crop, high prices”. This shows that Vietnamese agriculture has not yet met market demands and should better consider market demands in order to devise proper solutions.

Truong Gia Binh, chairman of the technology-communications giant FPT Corporation and head of the Private Economic Development Research Board, says Vietnam has great potential for agricultural development, but the most important thing is to find a “trump card” for the sector.

Experts say the trump card for agricultural development is a shrewd combination of technology and marketing.

Technology application is viewed as an effective solution for quality management and networking, helping to develop information systems for the world’s farm produce market and assisting farmers in mapping out fruitful production orientations and exporting products in line with market demands to avoid losses and minimize risks.

Furthermore, it is essential to target specific markets in concert with improvements to the quality and competitiveness of agricultural products on export markets. Businesses should not only sell unprocessed products but also process products to reduce the dependence on seasonal purchase orders and build established brands for Vietnamese agricultural products.

Nguyen Hong Minh, chairwoman of Vietnam Food Transparency Association, says new technologies are not too difficult to access but it is not easy for farmers to utilize and update hi-tech products regularly.

Srikanth Mangalam, an expert from the International Financial Corporation (IFC) under the World Bank proposed the use of Blockchain to trace the origins of products, helping citizens to have great with banks so that they can borrow larger sums of money to develop their production capacity.

Technology is not always a challenge, the challenge is how to improve available capacity, Mr Mangalam emphasizes. The government need to intensify investment in infrastructure, encourage public and private units’ involvement in revamping the legal system, and policies towards stimulating investment in the agricultural sector in order to promote the widespread adoption of modern and efficient technologies.