Loading and unloading of rice bags. The supply chain of agricultural and aquatic products was maintained during the social distancing period due to COVID-19. Photo haiquanonline.com.vn

HÀ NỘI - The agricultural sector, one of the pillars of the domestic economy, has plans to restore production in the south immediately after the COVID-19 pandemic is controlled.

Phạm Văn Bình, director of Bình Phước Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said the department had set up a working team to remove difficulties in production, supply and consumption of agricultural products.

Vice chairwoman of the Cần Thơ City Business Association Nguyễn Mỹ Thuận said that to restore safe production, localities needed to have a production plan suitable with the pandemic situation there and also ensure close coordination among them. That aimed to reach production and business targets in economic sectors.

Nguyễn Phương Lam, director of the Việt Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI)’s Cần Thơ branch, said a company could have a factory located in one locality but workforce and raw materials from other localities while its market was also in other places. Therefore, there must be a connection between localities in the southern region with the centre being HCM City.

Deputy Prime Minister Lê Văn Thành said the supply chain of enterprise was not only in one province or one region. Therefore, coordination between localities and regions was very important. The Government, localities and businesses all expected to quickly restore production and business.

Nguyễn Quốc Toản, director of the Department of Agricultural Product Processing and Market Development under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, noted that the Government had offered key and effective solutions to restore production, especially Resolution 105 on supporting cooperatives and small and medium enterprises.

The ministry expected this resolution would be implemented quickly in localities so that it could completely revive production in the agricultural sector, Toản said.

One of the priority solutions to restore production at present would be to vaccinate workers against COVID-19. Along with that, mechanisms, policies and solutions supporting people, workers and businesses would be effectively deployed to help them overcome difficulties and restore production in the last months of the year.

However, enterprises said that the pandemic was still unpredictable, so the Government should have an appropriate plan on restoring production. 

In order to restore efficiently production, they proposed to have consistency in the method of goods circulation between localities in a province/city and in a region and to prioritise vaccination for employees at enterprises.

At the same time, according to them, the provinces should have an agency receiving direct reports on difficulties and obstacles in production and business from the enterprises.

Võ Quan Huy, chairman of the Mỹ Thanh Shrimp Association, said during the recent social distancing period, shrimp producers, traders and processing enterprises faced difficulties in production and trading of shrimp when they had a shortage of labour for harvesting and processing, and difficulties in transporting materials for shrimp farming. 

However, from the beginning of September, the production and business of enterprises in Sóc Trăng Province and the Mekong Delta region have been significantly restored, according to Huy.

Võ Văn Phúc, general director of the Việt Nam Organic Fisheries Joint Stock Company, said after easing the social distancing measures, the enterprise had enhanced purchases of shrimp to ensure enough raw materials for production.

According to the Đồng Tháp Department of Industry and Trade, output of commodities in September was higher than that in the previous month. 

Meanwhile, the supply chain of agricultural and aquatic products was maintained during the social distancing period. It could see fast recovery when social distancing measures were eased, especially the supply chain of five key commodities, including rice, ornamental flowers, mangoes, pangasius and ducks. - VNS