The event was attended by about 100 participants, including representatives from provincial relevant agencies and departments, agriculture workers and farmers in Nghe An province.
This workshop conveyed the importance of record keeping, which is essential in the cultivation of safe crops, through presentations by Nafoods, Glico, and Kamereo.
Besides, a digital record keeping service developed by Nagase Vietnam and a local company was introduced at the workshop. The digital tool is expected not only to reduce the burden of recording work, but also to directly improve farmers’ profit by reducing cost and improving product quality. It is also expected to increase transparency of production history for buyers, encouraging them to purchase agricultural produces with peace of mind.
The demand for food safety is growing in Vietnam, especially among high-end retailers and Japanese exporters. However, farmers’ low awareness of food safety remains a big challenge. In order to address the issue, it is necessary for farmers to change their mindset and behavior toward market-oriented production.
Vietnam's agricultural market is developing rapidly. According to statistics in 2018, although Vietnam agricultural sector’s GNP is less than one-tenth of that of Japan, its agricultural workforce stood at 22.31 million while Japan’s was only 1.75 million. Vietnam’s cultivable area was 11.51 million hectares, approximately three times that of Japan, showing high potential for agricultural production and very high room for further development.
ABJD was established with support of JICA to provide technical support to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to promote Japanese investment in Vietnam’s agriculture and encourage technical supports from Japan’s private sector in the field. To date, ABJD has played a role in connecting Japanese and Vietnamese businesses by matching business partners and clients, and has helped both Japan and Vietnam to activate their agriculture-related businesses so that win-win development can be achieved.
JICA is currently dispatching expert to ABJD through the technical cooperation of "Advisor for Integrated Agriculture and Rural Development" (September 2021 to September 2022). JICA will further contribute to the development of the agricultural sector in Vietnam by supporting the enhancement of food safety, sales promotion, and expansion of sales channels.
Chung Anh