New opportunities to boost typical rural industrial products

Typical rural industrial products will be assisted in many trade promotion activities

Authorities have recognized 244 typical rural industrial products nationwide, including 110 national products and 134 regional products of good quality and high cultural value. The products cover a broad range from handicrafts, agro-forestry and aquatic processing products, to machinery, tools, and machine parts.

However, rural industrial products also suffer some weaknesses from their production stage to business and market expansion. According to Nguyen Thanh, Director of the Thua Thien Hue Department of Industry and Trade, although rural industrial products have been supported in connecting with large supermarkets, due to the small scale of production and very few production facilities, most products have a hard time finding markets due to their small scale and inability to meet food safety and quality requirements. Rural industrial enterprises also struggle with counterfeit and pirated goods flooding the markets.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade has requested its operational units to support market development for typical rural industrial products. The Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency has built programs to help rural industrial enterprises develop typical products. It has also provided the necessary information on the National Trade Promotion Program to Departments of Industry and Trade, helping businesses and cooperatives advertise typical products, develop local key products by participating in trade promotion activities and take part in national trade promotion schemes.

In addition, the agency is offering brand development opportunities for typical rural industrial products by guiding enterprises to take part in the branding process of the Vietnam National Brand Standards in domestic and international markets. The process provides enterprises with training, brand consultancy and experience sharing with successful national brand enterprises. Establishments with products recognized as typical rural industrial products are also given an opportunity to participate in trade conferences and seminars organized by the Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency to raise their brand awareness and strengthen business capacity. The program also enables participants to learn from the valuable experience of leading consultants and designers at home and abroad in order to not only enhance their image, product value and packaging, but also to build a suitable strategy through participation in design workshops.