The HCM City Department of Trade and Industry has launched a new programme called “Promotion of Vietnamese Goods” to support farmers’ produce, including vegetables, fruits, poultry, meat and seafood.

The programme aims for improvement of quality of goods under VietGap and HACPP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) standards, and investment in packaging, models, designs, brand registration and product traceability.

Higher standards and investments are expected to help bring more farm produce from Viet Nam to overseas markets.

Other localities that supply goods to HCM City will have to meet the same standards and conditions.

The city’s distribution system will be responsible for signing purchasing contracts with suppliers to ensure that it would receive goods meeting VietGap and HACPP standards of product safety, traceability and brand names.

Through this programme, the city aims to build a close association between producers, distributors and consumers, and to establish connections among localities.

Distributors will only accept goods which have brand traceability and meet the required standards, and they will also help producers improve the quality of packaging and models.

Producers, co-operatives, farms and farm households will be selected to join the programme, and they will pledge to produce goods with standards set by distributors.

Producers will be given help to build their brand names and connect with buyers, and city agencies will solicit programme membership from local wholesale markets and distribution systems.

Local goods for local customers

Nguyen Ngoc Hoa, deputy director of the city’s Department of Trade and Industry, said the “Promotions of Vietnamese Goods” programme would support another project which aims to develop the domestic market through a campaign to encourage Vietnamese customers to use Vietnamese goods.

The campaign has raised awareness among local customers about the selection, purchase and consumption of Vietnamese goods.

However, it has focused on manufactured goods and paid little attention to the production and processing of other groups of goods, especially essential farm products, Hoa said.

HCM City, which has more than 10 million people, has the highest average per capita income in Viet Nam, with a high demand for goods, he said.

The HCM City Statistics Bureau said the city every year needs 660,000 tonnes of rice, 85,000 tonnes of sugar, 60,000 tonnes of cooking oil, 216,000 tonnes of pork, 130,000 tonnes of poultry meat, 132,000 tonnes of seafood, and nearly one million tonnes of fruits and vegetables. — VNS