People shop at a supermarket in HCM City. The city has ensured adequate supply of essential goods such as vegetables and foodstuffs amid its social distancing under Directive 16. Photo nhandan.vn

HCM CITY — Supply of essential goods such as vegetables and foodstuffs to HCM City is abundant and will even exceed demand during the rest of the social distancing period, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

According to a special working group set up under the ministry, as of July 24 some 367 wholesale suppliers of agricultural products in the southern region have registered on its system to supply the city.

They can supply 1,442 tonnes of vegetables, 1,185 tonnes of fruits, 1,973 tonnes of other foods, 111 tonnes of aquatic products, 114 tonnes of livestock products, and 54,000 poultry eggs every day. 

Đồng Nai Province, for example, sells only 15 per cent of its supply of nearly 9,000 pigs a day locally and ships the rest to HCM City and other markets. Of its 85,000 chickens, 95 per cent are sold elsewhere.

Trà Vinh, Kiên Giang, Bạc Liêu, and Vĩnh Long provinces and Cần Thơ City also plan to increase output, and thus supply to the city, of fruits and aquatic produce from next week.

“Supply of items such as cucumber, longan, pineapple, lime, sweet potato, white-feathered chicken, saltwater crab, and shrimp is expected to exceed demand in the coming days,” according the working group.

To ensure smooth circulation of goods, the ministries of Agriculture and Rural Development and Industry and Trade will work with the city administration to set up locations to gather agricultural products for transport to wholesale and traditional markets in HCM City and provinces.

The agriculture ministry, warning the supply chains of agricultural products and goods should not be disrupted amid the social distancing, had told city and provincial authorities to create the most favourable conditions for smooth circulation of agricultural goods.

Currently 19 southern provinces and cities are under Directive 16, which would affect the production, supply and consumption of agricultural items, it said.

Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Phùng Đức Tiến, said there would be abundant supply of food, but the issue now is distribution because of the social distancing in the south. 

The city Department of Industry and Trade has set up 3,001 price-stabilisation points at supermarkets and convenience stores and 388 mobile sales points around the city and in Thủ Đức City to ensure prices remain steady.

It has also worked with suppliers to organise mobile sales to help the poor and disadvantaged and people living in quarantine and locked-down areas.

City authorities have instructed supermarkets and convenience stores to strictly control the selling of goods at higher prices, following public complaints about speculators taking advantage of the pandemic to buy goods in bulk and resell them at sky-high prices. — VNS