Representatives of MM Mega Market Vietnam receive the "Farmers’ Business" award from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development
A pioneer in establishing and growing sustainable supply chains in agriculture since 2005, MM Mega Market Vietnam has just been conferred the “Farmers’ Business” award by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
The award honours businesses that have made a significant contribution to rural development, and assumed a “leadership” role in agricultural restructuring in the last five years.
Mr. Phidsanu Pongwatana, managing director, MM Mega Market Vietnam, said: “We are delighted that what MM Mega Market has done for agriculture in Việt Nam is recognised by the ministry.
“In the past 16 years that we have doing business in Việt Nam we have provided training to more than 20,000 local farmers, fishermen, manufacturers, and officials to help them acquire certificates for good agricultural practices such as VietGap and GlobalGap.
“This knowledge helps the farmers be more efficient, improve competitiveness and make more profit in both domestic and export markets.”
MM Mega Market launched the first Đà Lạt Vegetable Platform in 2005, and now runs four food product depots believed to be the largest of their kind in Việt Nam. The Cần Thơ Fish Platform was set up in 2011 and now provides nearly 2,000 tonnes of products a year across over 400 different fish products.
The pork platform in Đồng Nai is an outgrowth of MM's partnership with farmers in Đồng Nai since 2017 to raise pigs to VietGAP standards, and now supplies MM stores in the south of the country nearly 400 tonnes per month, and recently Bến Tre Fruit platform.
At all these platforms, MM’s capable agricultural engineers get to work firsthand and closely with the local farmers and co-operatives in everything, from seed and animal selection and production planning to harvesting and transporting directly to the depots.
Farming households joining the loop will need to maintain a logbook to record in detail how they use pesticides, keep a journal of harvesting work and conduct periodic quality testing in accordance with MM Mega Market Vietnam’s requirements.
Connecting farmers with modern distribution channelsm export
“MM not only focuses on training but also helps connect farmers, manufacturers and suppliers with modern distribution systems, ensuring reliable and sustainable outputs not only for 19 domestic centres but also for export to Southeast Asia,” Phidsanu added.
At the Đà Lạt Vegetable Platform, MM is working closely with 300 local farmers in Đơn Dương, Đức Trọng and Đà Lạt, its three key sourcing areas in Lâm Đồng.
The 250ha sourcing area delivers more than 12,000 tonnes of VietGAP-standard vegetables and fruits every year to meet consumers’ demand at 19 MM stores across the country.
The Bến Tre Fruit Platform began operation in late October as a source of supply of safe and quality fruit products for MM’s 19 stores across the country.
More importantly, this depot will also serve as an export base for Vietnamese fruits headed for China, Thailand and other South East Asian countries.
“We plan to enlist about 100 farming households, mostly in and around Mekong River Delta provinces like Bến Tre, Tiền Giang, Long An, Trà Vinh, Vĩnh Long, and Đồng Tháp to develop this platform,” Phidsanu said.
“In phase 1 in 2018, the Bến Tre Fruit Platform is projected to provide about 15 tonnes a day. In phase 2 in 2019, the depot’s capacity will likely rise to 50 tonnes.”
In the first quarter of this year MM Mega Market Vietnam successfully exported the first batch of more than 100 tonnes of agricultural products comprising yellow sweet potato, purple sweet potato, dragon fruit, dried fruits, and rice paper for sales in 700 Big C malls in Thailand.
In addition to stable orders of over 100 tonnes a month, MM is also working on exporting an estimated 50 tonnes of frozen catfish fillet a month.
"With the strategy of boosting Việt Nam's agricultural exports to Thailand and regional markets where we have business operations, training farmers to meet advanced standards is one of the most important goals of MM,” Phidsanu said.