Japan helps leverage Vietnamese fruits & vegetables

On July 4, the National Agriculture Extension Center (NAEC), and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) jointly held a conference to share experience and best practices from the project "Strengthening Safe Crop Value Chain in Northern Vietnam".

According to Le Quoc Thanh, Director of the National Agriculture Extension Center, the Government and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) have currently attached great importance to standards and certifications in food production, value chain promotion, especially in fruit and vegetable production to keep up with the requirements from different markets both domestic and international.

Accordingly, following two projects including "Increasing crop production management capacity in Vietnam" and "Increasing the credibility of safe crop production in Northern Vietnam", the project "Strengthening Safe Crop Value Chain in Northern Vietnam" will be deployed in seven provinces and cities including Hanoi, Ha Nam, Hung Yen, Hai Duong, Bac Ninh, Nam Dinh and Son La.  Japan's ODA grants US$3 million for the project which will be implemented within four years, from 2022 until 2026.

The aim of the project is to promote and to build human resources capacity to scale up safe crop production; increasing production and management capacity in cooperatives that produce safe crops;   promoting partnerships among stakeholders in the value chains and increasing capacity of implementing food safety regulations

Mr. Le Quoc Thanh assessed that the project would have a great impact on Vietnam's fruit and vegetable production chain and it would open up the opportunity for Vietnamese fruits and vegetables to access to highly-demanding markets.