What factors are necessary for structural change in agriculture?

Changing the distribution system and building supermarket chains. As a matter of fact, agriculture producers with little capital and a shortage of information and skills cannot make it possible for products being delivered to consumers directly. This leads to reduced competition for Viet Nam’s products in foreign markets.

How can wholesale markets get agricultural products directly from the producers?

I would like to give an example on the development of supermarket chains in Thailand. In the beginning, they had 200 supermarkets and another 200 malls for trading agriculture goods. However, there are only five wholesale markets now, which are for agricultural businesses and consumers across the nation. Only large-size producers are able to meet the huge demand of these markets. As a result, smaller-size producers have to improve their knowledge and skills, as well as enhance their technology in order to enlarge their production size.

If this sample is applied to Viet Nam, producers will surely find difficulties in directly supplying their products to supermarket chains, as most of them are running small-size agricultural business. Therefore, in order to make changes in the agricultural structure, it’s important to not only build qualified supermarket chains, but also to enrich production skills and knowledge for agriculture producers. In addition, a good connection between distribution systems and producers is an imperative.

How are Vietnamese agriculture producers in market accession?

They are not good at all. Regarding production size, Vietnamese producers own only 0.6 hectares per person on average, while land owned by producers in other countries, especially in Europe or America, is much larger.

Organisationally, only 5 per cent of Vietnamese agriculture producers are participating in co-operatives, while the percentages in South Korea and Japan are 100 per cent.

For these reasons, Vietnamese agriculture producers not only have limitations when approaching world markets, but they are also placed in unequal competition with foreign businesses.

What should be done to make the process of structural change in agriculture effective?

Above all, agriculture producers need to enlarge their production scale, as they are unable to develop with their current small-size production.

Secondly, producers need assistance from relevant agencies when connecting to other markets.

Thirdly, intensive farming with modern technology should soon be realised for higher productivity

Last but not least, Vietnamese agriculture producers are dealing with unequal competition from foreign businesses, as mentioned before; therefore, protection from concerned agencies in the face of risks, natural disasters and epidemics, as well as market fluctuation, is especially important.

If these issues are overcome, Vietnamese agriculture will not only meet domestic demands, but also become a strong exporter for the world food market in the next 30 years.

Source: VietNamNet/Viet Nam News