Connecting digital solutions to sustain agricultural value chain

Under the direction of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Science and Technology, the Ho Chi Minh City Innovation and Startup Hub (SIHUB) co-organized a workshop titled "Green Transition- Integrating Digital Solutions into Product Value Chains and Real-World Production."

Le Thi Be Ba, Deputy Director of SIHUB, said the workshop aimed to accelerate the adoption of digital technology, product traceability, green branding, production process optimization, and value chain integration in support of rapid, efficient, and sustainable development in the coming period. The event also marked the official launch of a SIHUB presence in Binh Duong, signaling a deeper collaborative direction to support the collective economy through 2026.

"The innovation initiatives being rolled out by the city will be directly connected by SIHUB to localities with real needs for digital transformation and technology transfer across the three zones following the administrative merger," Be Ba said, emphasizing the goal of delivering tangible outcomes by bringing technology solutions to local cooperatives and enterprises.

Pham Minh Nhat, Deputy Head of the Cooperative Economy and Farm Division under the Ho Chi Minh City Sub-Department of Rural Development, said the city's expanded administrative boundaries following the merger have opened significant opportunities to build integrated agricultural value chains spanning production, processing, logistics, and e-commerce. He stressed that the convergence of these sectors represents a structural shift in how the city approaches agricultural development, moving away from fragmented, smallholder production toward coordinated, technology-enabled supply networks capable of meeting both domestic demand and international export standards.

To realize that potential, the city's Department of Agriculture and Environment has advised the municipal People's Committee to submit a series of enabling policy mechanisms to the Ho Chi Minh City People's Council for passage. Notably, Resolution 21 on supporting agricultural production linkages and consumption has facilitated 27 projects across key commodity sectors including rice, cacao, durian, green-skinned pomelo, and aquaculture. These models have helped standardize produce quality, stabilize selling prices, and boost income for farmers and cooperatives by up to 1.5 times, while also opening export pathways to the United States, Japan, and South Korea.

As of the end of the first quarter of 2026, Vietnam counted more than 35,274 cooperatives and approximately 81,580 cooperative groups nationwide. Ho Chi Minh City alone is home to 1,298 cooperatives and nine cooperative unions, with agricultural cooperatives accounting for 426 of that total.

Le Thanh Dan, Deputy Head of the Policy Development Division at the Ho Chi Minh City Cooperative Alliance, noted that the collective economy sector is actively adapting to market demands by deploying electronic production logs, QR-code traceability labels, and multi-platform sales channels, with a growing number of effective green and circular economy models emerging as standout examples. Delegates at the workshop widely agreed that these early adopters are setting a replicable blueprint for the broader cooperative network.

However, Dan was candid about the barriers ahead. Most cooperatives remain small-scale, undercapitalized, and short on technology-skilled personnel. He called for deeper "four-party" linkages among the state, scientists, enterprises, and cooperatives, along with improved access to green credit and the construction of a comprehensive digital ecosystem, enabling the collective economy sector to flexibly meet the increasingly stringent standards of international markets.

Pham Van Quan, Director of CHECKEE Technology Joint Stock Company, presented a range of practical solutions for applying technology to traceability, digital operational management, and production cost optimization.

Quan argued that in the context of the green transition and deepening global integration, building transparent traceability systems not only strengthens companies' management capabilities and supply chain efficiency, but also builds consumer trust and enhances the competitiveness of Vietnamese products.

He highlighted the accelerating trend toward comprehensive digitization, from electronic labels and digital product passports to data integration with the national traceability portal, as the foundation of a transparent data ecosystem. Quan noted that Vietnamese agricultural exporters are increasingly being held to the same traceability benchmarks as their counterparts in more mature markets, making early investment in these systems a strategic necessity rather than an optional upgrade.

Quan advised enterprises, cooperatives, and local governments to proactively standardize their data and apply artificial intelligence and IoT technologies in production management, thereby reducing operational costs and improving management efficiency to meet the increasingly demanding requirements of both domestic and export markets.