Hanoi promotes provincial products to meet residents’ demand

Hanoi promotes provincial products to meet residents’ demand

Promoting trade connection

One well-known example of such successful coordination is the Yen The hill chicken. Over the past 10 years, the Hanoi Department of Industry and Trade has coordinated with the Department of Industry and Trade in nearby Bac Giang Province to support chicken raising households in Yen The District and to promote the Yen The hill chicken brand, distributing the products through wholesale markets, supermarkets and trade fairs in Hanoi. The products, including processed poultry goods such as chicken pies, are widely available in most of Hanoi’s big distribution channels like Hapro, Big C, Vinmart, Coopmart and Intimex.

The Hanoi Industry and Trade sector organized trade exchange activities in Can Tho City (2015), An Giang and Ca Mau provinces (2016), Dong Thap and Tra Vinh provinces (2018) and supported trade promotion activities of these provinces in Hanoi. A variety of southern specialties, such as rice from Dong Thap, seafood products from Hau Giang or fruits from Long An, Vinh Long, Can Tho, Ben Tre and Dong Thap have been sold via distribution channels in Hanoi.

The city has coordinated with 21 provinces and cities to develop 543 supply chains of safe vegetables and meat to serve Hanoi’s consumers through 25 commercial centers, 141 supermarkets, 455 traditional markets, over 1,000 convenient stores and 798 safe fruit stores.

At trade promotion events, provinces and cities reached agreements with major Hanoi distributors to sell their local farm produce and goods. As a result, the amount of agricultural products and foodstuffs sold via distribution networks like Big C, Vinmart, Coopmart and Biggreen has increased from 20 to 60 percent.

A number of local brands have been promoted through pattern designs and packaging to enhance their marketability not just in Hanoi but also for exports through foreign distribution networks like AEON (Japan), Lotte (the Republic of Korea) and Big C (Thailand).

Meeting capital consumers’ demand

Tran Thi Phuong Lan, Deputy Director of Hanoi Department of Industry and Trade, said Hanoi is a major market for agricultural products and foodstuffs to meet the needs of 10.3 million people. In fact, connections with other localities are vital for Hanoi since it supplies only 35 percent of residents’ demand for rice, 15- percent of the beef needs and 5 percent of seafood consumption.

“Due to the African swine fever, there’s a shortage of about 4,000 tonnes of pork supplies in normal months and over 8,000 tonnes during Tet (the Lunar New Year holiday). Therefore, other products like chicken or processed meat are needed to replace pork and this is a good opportunity for major local products of Bac Giang, including the Yen The hill chickens, to enter the Hanoi market to serve the Hanoi citizens during the coming Tet holidays,” she suggested.

However, Hanoi distributors are hampered by the relatively small-scale and scattered production of agricultural products and limitations in the management of product quality during the cultivation, circulation and preservation processes. The small and scattered production makes it difficult for Hanoi’s distributors to buy goods in bulk. In addition, many production households and cooperatives have not met regulations concerning registration documents, quality tests, modes of payment and packages, and their coordination with distribution enterprises remain loose.

Retailers and supermarkets believe Hanoi consumers tend to prefer domestically produced goods with high quality and hygiene safety standards. Therefore, to ensure goods meet consumer demand and to stabilize the market, Hanoi has asked Departments of Agriculture and Rural Development of provinces and cities to guide enterprises and production cooperatives in cultivation and breeding according to VietGAP or GlobalGAP standards; maintain and develop the QR code to enhance electronic information transparency, especially safe agricultural products brought into Hanoi from other provinces.

Hanoi has also asked local supermarkets and food store chains to give agricultural products/foodstuff suppliers specific instructions on procedures to bring their products into distribution channels, and on the amount of product needed for each period so that suppliers can set their production plans to meet market demand. The distributors were also urged to actively promote their farm produce for their distribution networks both domestically and abroad.

Theo VEN