Domestic Agro-product Market Needs a Boost

Domestic Agro-product Market Needs a Boost

The promotion of export of farm-produce has often been a priority strategy of enterprises and authorised agencies. However, with an increasing high demand for farm-produce in the domestic market, the consumption of these goods at home needs more attention.

With a population of 80 million people, which is predicted to reach to around 86.3 million in 2010, with per capita income of US$800 per year, the domestic market is expected to play an important role in farm-produce consumption. According to initial statistics of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, 70 per cent of farm-produce is consumed at home.

According to a survey of the agricultural service, some farm-produce groups have a high consumption rate at home. These include animal husbandry products, such as meat, eggs and milk, which account for between 95 and 100 per cent of total output; vegetables and fruit with 90 per cent and rice with between 75 and 80 per cent. Meanwhile, some groups have low domestic consumption rate. These include coffee, cashew nuts, and pepper at less than five per cent and rubber and tea at between 20 and 25 per cent. Also according to the survey, to meet domestic demand, Vietnam spends more than US$1 billion each year importing wheat and flour, accounting for 100 per cent of the demand; maize and soya bean at between 10 and 20 per cent; milk, cotton, veterinary medicines and plant protection chemicals at about 90 per cent.

Consumption tendencies have experienced some significant changes since the living standard of part of the population has improved. Now, consumers pay more attention to quality, samples, prices and trademarks of products. Rice consumption has seen an annual fall of one per cent while the consumption of vegetables and fruit, meat and eggs has increased between five and six per cent per year. Particularly, the consumption of milk has seen a rapid increase of ten per cent per year. Requirements for quality, safety and hygiene have become increasingly high.

Experts say that there is a need to synchronise solutions to maintain the position of Vietnamese farm-produce. These solutions should be developed based on features of the existing farm-produce market and consumption tendencies. According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the ministry is co-operating with other ministries and agencies to guide the agricultural sector towards implementing a variety of development and agricultural extension programmes, promoting the examination and control of integrated pest management (IPM) and encouraging farmers to apply it to increase the quality of their farm-produce. At the same time, trade promotion activities, including market exploration, fairs and exhibitions, trademark building and development, will be boosted. A special solution is to closely follow the market’s developments to stabilise the price of necessary food products, including rice, salt and sugar.

Experts also stress that all mechanisms and policies relating to the development of the domestic market, namely the Decree 02/2003/ND-CP on developing and managing markets with a concentration on development of rural trade until 2010, should be implemented. Tran Van Huy, director of the Department of Fisheries, Agriculture, and Forestry of Da Nang, said that the premise condition for the development of the farm-produce market was the initiative of each household, each enterprise and each producer with a need to promote co-operation among the State, farmers, entrepreneurs and scientists. Pham Van Quynh, deputy director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Can Tho, said that a focus should be given to planning and organising production with suitable infrastructure investment programmes. Production should be organised in a manner of collective co-operation and agricultural promotion with a focus on the demand of the market to produce goods that best meet the demand of consumers. Talking about human resource development as a measure to increase the competitiveness as well as samples, quality and price of farm-produce to maintain its share in the domestic market, Nguyen Huu Tien, deputy director of the Quang Ngai Sugar Company said policies and plans were needed to develop qualified cadres and workers.

Regarding infrastructure development for farm-produce consumption, plans to implement the programme on market development are on the way. Accordingly, the planning and building of farm-produce markets will be given careful attention with a gradual building of a transaction floor. In the short term, markets for rice in Can Tho, coffee in Dak Lak and peanuts in Nghe An will be built.

• Mai Anh