Working Group 970 contributes to the daily consumption of 200-400 tons of agricultural goods

On August 17, MARD Minister Le Minh Hoan presided over a meeting with the Southern Working Group 970 and heads of agriculture and rural development agencies from 13 provinces and towns in the Mekong Delta to discuss the state of agricultural output and consumption.

Every day, 400 tons of agricultural products are consumed

So far, 1,166 focus agricultural items and food supplies have been registered via MARD's Working Group 970. 317 vegetable points, 302 fruit points, 423 fisheries and animal husbandry points, 72 food points, and 52 other product points are among them.

There are many points of supply, including 365 cooperatives (31.3 percent ), 428 cooperative groups, families, and farms (36.7 percent ), 222 enterprises (19 percent ), 97 small companies (8.3 percent ), 8 market management boards (0.7 percent ), and 47 other entities (4 percent ).

htx.cooplink.com is a website that connects agricultural product supply and demand.

When buyers and sellers can discover phone numbers and selling information for goods on the web, it has aided in the connection and purchase of agricultural products.

There are 1,307 units registered to use, including 1,009 units registered to sell (77.6%), 206 units registered to purchase (15.8%), 47 state assistance agencies (3.6%), and 39 organizations supporting buying and selling for farmers (3 percent ).

The updates on demand and supply focus areas on Vietnam Agriculture Newspaper have piqued the interest of market buyers in Ho Chi Minh City and surrounding regions. Furthermore, the working group uses zalo and email to transmit supply point information to merchants in Ho Chi Minh City's Thu Duc, Binh Dien, and Hoc Mon markets, as well as supermarket systems.

Every day, the Working Group effectively connects to help in the consumption of more than 40 orders with an output of 200-400 tons, mostly sweet potatoes, bananas, longan, coconut water, aquatic goods (crayfish, white-leg shrimp, pangasius catfish, tilapia), spices, and vegetables (mainly cucumbers, cassava tubers, gourds, squash...).

Practically all agricultural goods with VietGAP certification or above, registered via the Working Group, are successfully linked and sold, and there are almost not enough VietGAP quality items to sell.

When small merchants and big wholesale marketplaces in Ho Chi Minh City reopen, it is expected that the number of products consumed by the Group will continue to rise quickly; many small traders have contacted the order leads.

The majority of the organization, however, can only link tiny merchants in the Binh Dien wholesale market. Because the Thu Duc and Hoc Mon wholesale marketplaces have yet to offer a list of major merchants interested in purchasing products, the working group has been unable to connect much.

There are many problems

According to the report of MARD's Southern Working Group 970, the Mekong Delta harvested 820 thousand hectares of summer-autumn rice; productivity was 56.7 quintals per ha; and production was 4,645 thousand tons.

Aquaculture production operations in the Mekong Delta's 13 provinces are mostly unchanged, and the supply of seed, feed, and aquatic materials remains constant.

Only 6 of the region's 120 compound feed facilities are temporarily closed, which has little impact on aquaculture output.

Difficulties with a manpower shortage and transportation congestion in seafood production have mostly been eliminated in certain areas.

Shrimp prices dropped low last week and are already beginning to rise again, although at a slower pace than in prior months but comparable to the same time last year.

The processing and export of seafood continue to encounter challenges. There are 123 seafood processing companies for export in the Southern area that have ceased operations. 

Because Ho Chi Minh City and other provinces have extended the social distance rule as of August 15, seafood processing businesses will encounter additional challenges due to the very high on-the-spot cost. The whole fish production and business chain will be impacted by this scenario.

Working Group 970's assistance efforts yielded the following results

Working Group 970 of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development had cooperated with other units by the end of August 13 to give presents to 13,280 working families in challenging conditions and people in isolated areas in Thu Duc city. 70.7 tons of grains, 91.4 tons of vegetables, 34.3 tons of fruit, 12,200 broiler chicks, 132,000 chicken eggs, 1030 boxes of instant noodles, and more than 232 cartons of milk are among the presents.

Working Group 970 coordinated with the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Ho Chi Minh City on August 16 to receive and distribute 2,000 gifts to 2,000 households living in isolation and long blockade areas in District 1 and District 3 with: 10 tons of rice, 2,000 broiler chickens, 2,000 boxes of instant noodles, 20,000 eggs, and 4 tons of vegetables.

Thus, as of August 16, 2021, Working Group 970 gave 15,200 presents totaling almost VND 6 billion while executing the initiative to mobilize necessary food and food sources to assist employees in difficult circumstances who are preventing and fighting the Covid-19 pandemic in Ho Chi Minh City.

At the same time, Working Group 970 distributed 100,000 medical masks to officials and workers of the Agriculture and Rural Development sector in the Mekong Delta and Southeast provinces.