Minister Le Minh Hoan’s three proposals for agro-product consumption

Due to the complicated situation of the Covid-19 epidemic, production, circulation and consumption of agricultural products faced many difficulties in August 2021. According to the Import and Export Department (Ministry of Industry and Trade), export turnover of many Vietnamese agricultural, forestry and fishery products has shown signs of decrease.

Despite facing numerous challenges, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan is optimistic.

"Life is always intertwined between opportunities and challenges, between negativity and positivity. It's important that we always think of the positive things", said the Minister at the "Finding solutions for agro-product consumption: the near future and the long run" seminar on the morning of September 4th.

And in order to help farmers find the foundation solution to consume agricultural products, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development has proposed three solutions.

The first is to break out of the seasonal crop mindset. Whatever short-term pressure one may face, farmers need to join hands with the agricultural sector to come up with long-term visions from 5 to 10 years.

The second is to strengthen communication. According to the head of the agricultural sector, ít is essential that all professional industries acquire a development triangle including the state - market - society. Only when the expansion of this interference is large enough will the uncertainties and risks be reduced.

The third is to expand the development space. Previously, the agriculture sector and many other sectors have promoted regional and sub-regional linkages. However, cooperative as they are, geographical boundaries still “overprint” the thoughts of development, because, for instace, Can Tho traders who go to buy rice in Dong Thap will be confused about which locality GDP will be calculated for.

For the expansion to occur, Minister Le Minh Hoan calls for empathy from all parties, from state management agencies, businesses to cooperatives and farmers.

"Those who make the policy must put themselves in enterprises’ shoes to come to an understanding of the difficulties when goods are congested. On the contrary, enterprises also need to comply with production measures in the new situation such as “3 on the spot” to help the locality fulfill the dual goals of disease prevention and control as well as socio-economic development”, the Minister shared.

The leader of the agriculture sector call for all stakeholders to together create a development ecosystem. This will serve as the basis to help the agricultural sector not only become the support pillar for the economy but also create sustainability for the countryside and a sense of responsibility for the people.

Another benefit of expanding development space is to save costs in circulation and production. For the people, the epidemic means hardship, but it is also a time for them to be clearly aware that it is impossible to maintain small, fragmented and spontaneous production. Managers and executives’ task in the agricultural sector is to help people radically change their mindset, help them transform from spontaneous production to voluntarily join cooperatives, with the idea of together sharing profits.