LONG AN – Size is everything for the agricultural businesses in the Cửu Long (Mekong) Delta province of Long An. They are looking at ways to increase supplies of their products to  HCM City, the biggest economic centre in the Southern region.

Nguyễn Ngọc Hòa, deputy director of the HCM City’s Department of Industry and Trade, said that buying and selling was being done through modern distribution channels as well as traditional markets. Safe food, traceability of product origin, and post-harvest preservation are all important parts of today’s agricultural production process.

However, there are only a few enterprises and cooperatives from Long An that can satisfy these conditions.

If enterprises and cooperatives from Long An met these conditions, they could become key suppliers to HCM City over the long term, according to Hòa.

At the meeting between officials from HCM City and Long An Province on April 26, representatives of Long An Province’s enterprises and cooperatives said that farmers in the province had not changed their production habits. Many farmers are not producing goods under contract or according to market demand.

Farmers are also using levels of pesticides that do not follow required standards.

Nguyễn Văn Được, deputy chairman of Long An Province’s People’s Committee, said that Long An authorities had asked HCM City to share experiences and support local enterprises in applying high-tech production and post-harvest preservation methods.

“Long An will create more connections between enterprises and cooperatives in the province with enterprises and large distributors in HCM City. Long An would like to establish a supply chain of safe agricultural products and quality-assured products, following the requirements of the market,” he added.

To solve the problem, HCM City authorities said they would help Long An Province’s producers to prevent and control disease and maintain food safety by transferring high-quality breeding stocks and high-tech breeding methods.

Ninety co-operatives in Long An, including 30 co-operatives producing under Vietnam Good Agricultural Practices standards, with capacity of more than 20,000 tonnes, supply about 500 tonnes of agricultural products every day to HCM City.  – VNS