Measures sought to promote chains of agricultural production and consumption

Update: 22-09-2021 | 12:00:57

According to the assessment of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Covid-19 epidemic has affected all fields of cultivation, husbandry, forestry and fisheries. Many commodities with a large output at the harvest time have been congested due to supplying chain disruptions. Facing that situation, the government has just held a conference to find solutions to promote the circulation and consumption of agricultural products.

Covid-19 epidemic has caused various difficulties for production and consumption of agriculture products. In this photo: A line of semi-processing and packing preparation is on-going at U&I Agriculture JSC in Phu Giao district

Difficulties

Localities and industry associations have proposed to the government to pay attention to and focus on removing obstacles and difficulties in the production, circulation and exportation of agricultural products by reducing corporate income tax payable in 2021 and the first 6 months of 2022, reducing import tax on raw materials for animal and aquaculture feeds and input materials, and extending deadline for payable value added taxes.

Mr. Pham Van Bong, Director of Binh Duong Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said that due to a break in the supplying chain of agricultural products, many items in Binh Duong have fallen into excess. Specifically, currently there is a surplus of about 80 tons of cantaloupe, 70 tons of bananas and 30 tons of seedless lemons. In particular, leafy vegetable products are in excess and facing difficulties in consumption. In livestock production, the most difficult thing is still the consumption of white feathered industrial chicken products. The demand for eggs has decreased, so the consumption ability has also slowed down. Currently, more than 2 million chicken eggs and 200,000 quail eggs are preserved every day.

Along with solutions to ensure people's health and safety during the Covid-19 pandemic, industries and localities are still keeping on to solve problems arising in production and business operations of enterprises and people with the focus on not to break the production chain as well as helping farmers to harvest and consume seasonal agricultural products.

What measures?

In order to successfully implement the "dual goal", and at the same time, to contribute to the promotion of production to meet the food needs of domestic consumers and exporting agricultural products, Binh Duong has issued many documents guiding the operations of transport activities associated with Covid-19 prevention and control. In particular, it directs departments, branches and localities to unify inspection contents and procedures at Covid-19 epidemic control checkpoints across provincial, district and commune levels in a flexible manner by creating favorable conditions for transportation and circulation of goods, especially goods transported for export and domestic consumption.

Mr. Le Minh Sang, Director of Tan My Fruit Cooperative in Bac Tan Uyen district, said that before the difficult situation caused by the Covid-19 epidemic, there were times when pomelo products of the cooperative was overloaded up to 50 tons. Combo bags of agricultural products, through the e-commerce trading platform of htx.cooplink.com.vn, have been sold online and linked with agricultural cooperatives in the area to the province and Ho Chi Minh city, resolving a large amount of backlogged goods to stabilize production and business operations.

Mr. Pham Van Bong added that, in order to expand the market and promote the consumption of agricultural products of the province during the Covid-19 epidemic situation, in the coming time, Binh Duong's agricultural sector will focus on implementing a series of key solutions. Accordingly, it will continue to monitor and grasp difficulties in production, transportation and consumption to coordinate with departments, branches and district-level People's Committees to remove them. It will also coordinate with all levels, sectors and local authorities in the province to regularly monitor and update the situation of agricultural production in the locality. It will regularly contact and grasp the production and consumption of agricultural products to support and encourage a variety of business methods from traditional to online sales. Meanwhile, it will coordinate to build linkage chains and plans for processing, preserving and consuming agricultural products in a sustainable way.

At the conference, Deputy Prime Minister Le Van Thanh requested localities to ensure smooth circulation of goods in accordance with the government's direction, not to issue additional processes, procedures and permits that cause difficulties and obstruct traffic. The local agricultural sector needs to coordinate with the health sector, industries and trade to work specifically with businesses to remove difficulties and obstacles, and at the same time, develop a plan to restore production. He asked for close coordination with people and businesses in developing a master plan on agricultural reproduction, in which, not to allow the risk of food shortages.

In the first 8 months of 2021, the total import and export turnover of agricultural, forestry and fishery products nationwide is estimated at over USD 60.9 billion. In which, exportation was estimated at USD 32.13 billion, increasing by 21.6% over the same period last year; importation was estimated at VND 28.8 billion USD, increasing by 44.1%; trade surplus of agricultural products reached about USD 3.35 billion, declining by 48.2% over the same period last year. The export turnover of agricultural products has achieved a good growth rate in the first 6 months of 2021. However, starting from July due to a strong outbreak of the disease in the southern provinces, the production, harvesting, processing, and export consumption of agricultural products have showed signs of a sharp decline.

Reported by Thoai Phuong – Translated by Vi Bao

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Measures sought to promote chains of agricultural production and consumption

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