Bring Vietnam’s agro-products to cross-border e-commerce platforms

2025 goal: 10,000 Nutri Mart stores/supermarkets

Speaking at the Forum “Connecting production and consumption of agricultural products and OCOP products in the Central Highlands region in 2021” on the morning of September 25th, Ms. Nguyen Thi Diem Hang, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Vietnam Organic Nutrition Food JSC, Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Agricultural Business Council (VCAC) shared that the company has established 500 Nutri Mart stores/supermarkets in 63 provinces and cities across the country.

It is expected that by the end of this year a total of 1,000 stores/supermarkets will come into operation and by 2025, the scale of the Nutri Mart stores/supermarkets chain will reach the milestone of 10,000. The store chain will underwrite 100% of Vietnamese agricultural products including fresh products and deep-processed products as well as Vietnamese medicinal herbs.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Dien Hang wishes that Vietnamese agricultural products can really have a place on supermarket shelves both domestically and internationally.

“We want to have direct links with business households, cooperatives, and OCOP product manufacturers. It’s because we are lacking a lot of suppliers to bring sufficient products into the system. The input review is actually very simple: as long as the product is of good quality and complies with the State's regulations, has a value-added invoice, it can enter the supermarket system without paying any costs, not even the cost for shelf placement and related procedures," said Ms. Nguyen Thi Diem Hang.

Regarding agro-product consumption, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Tran Thanh Nam said that the source of agricultural products is abundant, but the logistics matters require the authorities to step in with the spirit of "remove every difficulty that exists".

In the context of the Covid-19 pandemic affecting the whole world, the Deputy Minister noted the agricultural sector and localities that the demand for agricultural products in countries is increasing, so securing the source of raw materials is "of utmost importance”.

Find an export route for Vietnam’s agro-products

Ms. Nguyen Thi Diem Hang raised her concerns about bringing Vietnamese agricultural products to the international market.

"It pains me to see Vietnamese people not having an output for products. Calls for help are frequent, while foreign products are still roaming in our supermarkets. We will do the opposite. We redesign the product’s brand identity," said Ms. Hang.

Ms. Hang’s second concern is that businesses are suffering from very high logistics costs while the supply points are small and fragmented. Localities should reorganize personnel to support businesses in purchasing products

"…Meanwhile our goods take more than a month at sea to reach Amazon's warehouse in the US; the quantity of goods required is also very large as it has to be calculated in accordance with the number of containers. If the quantity of goods is not enough, the supply chain will be broken, resulting in the businesses having to suffer heavy fines themselves, so there are times when we can not come to an agreement and sign the contracts," said Ms. Hang.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Diem Hang suggested: "The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development or any other related unit needs specialized personnel to connect the focal points of agricultural product supply in the province and help collect products to the enterprise's general warehouse so that the unit’s vehicle only has to dispatch once.”