Proposal on letting seeds, fertilizers,… be essential items

On July 20th, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Tran Thanh Nam, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Do Thang Hai had had a meeting in Ho Chi Minh City with relevant ministries and sectors to solve the problem of congestion and difficulties in commodity consumption in provinces and cities that are executing isolation according to Directive 16 in the South.

"The MARD and the MoIT should jointly working on how to ensure that goods from production areas to consumers achieve food and disease safety", said Mr. Hai.

Not lacking in terms of goods

Mr. Le Viet Binh, Deputy Chief of the MARD Office in charge of the South, affirmed that the total amount of goods supplied to the whole region and to Ho Chi Minh City is not lacking. However, the local lack of goods and increase in prices in some areas of HCM City do exist.

Regarding this issue, Mr. Duong Thai Trung, Head of Goods Distribution Office (Domestic Markets Department, Ministry of Industry and Trade) requested the MARD to provide more information on goods. The input is not lacking, but the market really needs to know how that food source is obtained, specifically how much, and how to contact.

And Ms. Le Viet Nga, Deputy Director of the Domestic Markets Department, wants to know where the localities that want to bring goods to Ho Chi Minh City are stuck and in what areas they want to gather. From there, she will recommend the People's Committee of Ho Chi Minh City and neighboring provinces to arrange field gathering warehouses.

The role of localities

In accordance with Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Do Thang Hai, it is the locality that decides. How successful and effective things can be, requires active participation from localities. Through the actual progress in Ho Chi Minh City and the southern provinces, he found that 19 provinces and cities suffering from social distancing are showing signs of overload.

In order to counter these issues, Mr. Do Thang Hai requests the MARD to allow the two Working Groups of the two ministries to directly cooperate to come up with specific and detailed solutions for each scenario, each locality. Other ministries, departments and sectors should also involve more and reach an agreement in coordination.

As shared by Mr. Nguyen Thanh Nam, Deputy General Director of the Directorate of Market Surveillance, MoIT, currently the Departments of Industry and Trade of these localities have coordinated with the Departments of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Department of Transport, based on the functions and tasks of each unit to handle the problems.

Department of Industry and Trade of Ho Chi Minh City proposed the Working Group to report to the ministries and sectors for a plan to protect the production area of essential goods for HCM City; support and create conditions for farmers from harvesting, transportation, ensuring smooth circulation of goods, arranging goods gathering warehouses in provinces and cities, creating conditions for vehicles transporting essential commodities.

Having listened to the opinions of the Industry and Trade sector, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Tran Thanh Nam asked the Ministry of Industry and Trade to provide the address of 3,000 mobile sales points in Ho Chi Minh City so that localities can have places to supply goods. "Things must be done so that the supply is ready to connect with those in need", said Mr. Tran Thanh Nam.

According to the MARD’s representative, at present, goods can still be produced, but the remaining problem is the traffic congestion, distribution, not production.

“Localities all notified that the goods are sufficient, only lack transportation. And if the situation is prolonged, vegetables that can’t be kept for a long time will be spoiled. Therefore, it is necessary to find a solution to overcome this problem soon", Deputy Minister Tran Thanh Nam emphasized.

In agreement with the opinions of Deputy Minister Tran Thanh Nam, Deputy Minister Do Thang Hai added that some agricultural materials such as seeds, fertilizers,… need to be studied and proposed to the Government to put into the list of essential commodities.