Vietnam promotes rural economic development with a passion

Promoting product consumption in modern distribution stages

The secret is in linkages among four segments of the cultivation, production and distribution chain. These include companies providing consumption products; local authorities directing production; cooperatives organizing product cultivation and collection and farmers.

The Nafoods Northwest Company, an innovative fruit and vegetable grower, processor and exporter, provides one successful example of this linkage.

In 2015, the company signed a contract with several local households in Son La Province to pilot Taiwanese passion fruit on 5ha. The company provided seedlings and high-tech farming techniques, and promised to buy the entire harvest. So far, it has developed and expanded its growing areas to about 2,500ha, and signed consumption contracts with over 20 cooperatives and cooperative groups. With direction by the local authorities, the cooperatives guided local farmers in implementing cultivation on their own land. Following the success of the passion fruit pilot in Moc Chau District, the model has been expanded to five other districts, with plans to reach a 5,000-hectare provincial production zone by 2021.

Central Group Vietnam has also conducted a program of purchasing farm produce directly from farmers and cooperatives through its retail food distribution channels like Big C and GO supermarkets. So far, more than 70 cooperatives, including OCOP cooperatives and other production units have supplied 20,000 tonnes of goods to the retail system.

Recently, Central Group signed Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) with the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, under which the three sides will team up to implement programs on purchasing safe farm produce directly from local farmers. The agreement will serve as the basis for Central Group to promote the consumption of specialties grown under the OCOP Program in the northern mountainous provinces through Big C and GO. In addition to preferential trade conditions, Central Group will reserve its best display positions for promotion of Vietnamese OCOP products. The group is also building special marketing programs exclusively for the OCOP program.

The 3T Cao Phong Agricultural Cooperative (Cao Phong District, Hoa Binh Province), one of the collective economic units that has food safety certification for orange growing has improved production and increased values of citrus products such as oranges and tangerines. In addition to its free market throughout the country, in 2018, Cao Phong oranges filled the shelves at Co.op Mart supermarkets in the southern region and Big C in Hanoi. Vietnam Airlines serves Cao Phong orange specialties as a dessert for business passengers on its nearly 70 routes.

According to experts, to further develop OCOP products, localities need separate, synchronous policies for the OCOP program from production and processing to consumption. They also need to promote large-scale production to meet the output demand and product quality, and to enhance trade promotion and advertising on different forms of media. The close coordination between businesses and modern distribution systems will contribute significantly to popularizing OCOP products with consumers.