Building modern and large-scale agricultural products supply centers in the Mekong Delta

This system of supply and connect centers will create a closed supply chain, ensure food safety and increase the value of agricultural products.

Invest in 3 agricultural product supply centers

According to Tran Cong Thang - Director of the Institute of Policy and Strategy for Agriculture and Rural Development (under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development), by the experience of a number of countries around the world about a modern and large-scale agricultural product supply center, in associated with a trading floor, is a channel that helps to connect efficiently the production with distribution and consumption of agricultural products, ensuring quality and traceability.

Currently, the network of agricultural wholesale markets and commodity trading centers in Vietnam is still limited, failing to meet the above functions and standards. Existing wholesale markets for agricultural products are mainly concentrated in large urban areas, not yet linked with key raw material production areas.

In particular, there has not been a synchronous policy system to promote the development of a system of modern agricultural product supply centers. There is lack of mechanism and policy to attract businesses to invest in building supply center.

The development and implementation of the Project "Development of a system of modern agricultural product supply centers associated with various types of commercial infrastructure in the period 2022 - 2030" is necessary and suitable for the restructuring of the agricultural sector in associated with building new countryside in Vietnam.

The Mekong Delta will be invested in buiding 3 regional-scale agricultural product supply centers which locate in 3 provinces of Dong Thap, Soc Trang and Can Tho city, according to the draft project.

These centers will be the place to focus and manage the quality of agricultural products from the collection centers, enterprises/cooperatives. Connecting production areas with distribution and consumption of agricultural products in the domestic market and for export.

Building a large-scale agricultural product connection center in Can Tho city

A center for linkage, production, processing and consumption of agricultural products in the Mekong Delta will be invested and built in Can Tho city, as regulated in the Resolution No. 45/2022/QH15 of the National Assembly on piloting specific mechanisms and policies for the development of Can Tho.

The center is expected to operate as an industrial park. “There will have no new agency established in the city. The Management Board of the Industrial Park of Can Tho will manage the center. At the same time, the city will have mechanisms and policies to attract investors, which will create and govern the economic benefits and regulations so that 13 provinces and cities in the Mekong Delta can bring agricultural products into the center in order to form a value chain,” Duong Tan Hien - Standing Vice Chairman of Can Tho City People's Committee says.

According to Nguyen Van Su - Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Can Tho City, “the agricultural sector of the provinces in the Mekong Delta must coordinate to build large-scale concentrated agricultural raw material areas into a value chain to connect with businesses inside and outside the Mekong Delta region.”

By this time, it is an urgent goal to build a center for linkage, production, processing and consumption of agricultural products in the Mekong Delta, considering it a multi-service destination. Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Tran Thanh Nam especially emphasizes: “The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development will set up a working group to support Can Tho in developing and completing the project, and at the same time making a specific plan to ensure the project's implementation as scheduled.”

In the near future, there will have not one but many centers for connecting and consuming large-scale agricultural products in the Mekong Delta. These centers are expected to contribute to change the entire chain of production, supply and distribution of agricultural products effectively, and further more to become a system of modern Vietnamese agricultural products supply centers, meeting domestic and international standards.

The distribution system of agricultural products has had many positive changes in recent time, fairly serving the diverse needs of domestic and export consumers.

Nationwide, there are more than 1,600 chains of safe agricultural products, more than 2,900 selling places of guaranteed food safety products by the end of 2021. Notably, there are organic agricultural production models in 33 provinces and cities with an area of about 70,000 hectares.

However, in terms of production scale, most of the linkage models are still small and unsustainable, so they often face precarious prices, "good season - low value", consumption of agricultural products is not stable.