Vietnam, Japan strengthen cooperation to develop agricultural supply chains

MARD Minister Le Minh Hoan speaks at the event (Photo: VOV)

Hanoi – A seminar on connecting agricultural supply chains was held in Hanoi on November 22, promoting agricultural cooperation between Vietnam and Japan.

The event attracted more than 120 delegates, and was jointly organised by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), the National Agricultural Extension Centre (NAEC), Agribusiness Japan Desk (ABJD), and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

New products, technologies and the role of agricultural extension activities in Japan's agricultural business cooperation were introduced at the event.

Speaking at the event, MARD Minister Le Minh Hoan said that the strategic agriculture cooperation between Vietnam and Japan is developing strongly, boasting a variety of achievements.

Japan is currently one of Vietnam's important agricultural, forestry and fisheries export markets, accounting for about 7.5% of the country’s total export turnover of agricultural products. The average export growth rate in the past 10 years has reached an average of 6.35%/year.

Hoan said that Japan's strict specialised technical standards for agriculture, the fluctuation of the world economy, and domestic production protectionism are having a great impact on global agricultural trade.

Meanwhile, military conflicts, trade embargoes, and the risk of epidemic outbreaks can increase the risk of global supply chain disruption, which posed challenges for agricultural cooperation between the two countries.

He said the two countries need to make more effort to build appropriate cooperation and exchange mechanisms, adjusting production processes and technologies to remove these difficulties and challenges.

Le Quoc Thanh, Director of the National Agricultural Extension Centre, said that in order to realise the goals and commitments of cooperation between Vietnam and Japan, they must build a sustainable agricultural ecosystem where producers, businesses and consumers can work closely to create quality products that meet the increasing demand of domestic and foreign markets.

Thanh suggested that experts and businesses share experiences on building a connection network, creating an effective communication system between farmers, producers, distributors and consumers to help the parties quickly exchange information about products, prices and market demand.

On this occasion, the centre and the AEON Topvalu Vietnam Co., Ltd signed a Memorandum of Understanding on promoting the consumption of agricultural products./.