Last December 16-18, 2013, AsiaDHRRA participated in the launching and conduct of the start-up planning workshop held in VMQ Hotel, Hanoi, Vietnam. This activity is part of the Phase 2 of the Project entitled Building VNFU staff’s capacity in using right tools to support the development of collective economic forms in agriculture.  This project is supported by Collectif Stratégies Alimentaires (CSA), an agriagency-member of Agricord based in Belgium with funds from the Belgian Development Cooperation (DGD) through Agricord. AsiaDHRRA provides technical support and accompaniment to the project.

At the opening ceremony,  Mr. Lai Xuan Mon, VNFU Vice-Chair supervising the Economic Department and Mr. Pham Huu Van, Director, Economic Department, expressed his very strong support to this project as strategies for collective economic forms in agriculture is very important for VNFU members in the context of globalized trade, ASEAN economic integration and the growing strength of private agricultural companies. Also, the very energetic Ms. Hoang Thi Hau, chairwoman of the Thanh Xuan Commune Farmers Union, spoke about their experiences in engaging markets with their organic vegetable products. Mr. Than Dy Ngu, Director of Ecolink, a private company, also spoke about its company’s experiences in relating with organized farmers for the supply of agricultural products.  A summary of lessons from the 6 studies of collective economics was also presented. All these pointed out many weaknesses, including those from the supply side (farmer groups), product quality, economies of scale, pole-vaulting and difficulties in terms of rural infrastructure, transport and logistics, among others.

Ms. Hoang Thi Hau, Thanh Xuan, Chairwoman of Thanh Xuan commune farmers’ Union presented their experiences in marketing organic vegetable in Thanh Xuan commune, Soc Son district, Hanoi, Vietnam. Thanh Xuan organic vegetable model has been started since July 2008 with the participation of only 11 farmer members.  In September 25, 2009, Thanh Xuan organic vegetable production inter-group was established. Now, there are 13 organic farmers’ groups, supplying the vegetable to markets in Hanoi with 23-28 tons of vegetables a month.

Mr.Than Dy Ngu, Director of Ecolink, Hiep Thanh Group of Companies also presented the company experiences in linking up with farmers union for supply of agricultural products.  Established in 2001, the Company’s strategy was to provide high-quality sustainable products by contracting farmers’ groups producing  organic tea, herbs, spices and food items. The tea value chain includes farmers’ groups/production teams (about 10,000 farmers), sell their products to ten processing factories that was established by the company in the provinces. The company exports tea and sell other products in the domestic market. The company exports around 5,000 tons of tea every year.
In the organic tea supply chain, there are 1,200 farmers’ households participating in managing the quality of products based on internal certification system (ICS). The organic tea and spice factories follow  the export standards set by EU and North America. Other products are sold  through the online selling system of ECOMART. The Company focuses on supporting farmers’ group development, contracting with farmers’ groups and building the product trademarks. However in the process of cooperation, the company finds some difficulties in developing organic tea production models. Farmers pole-vault on supply agreements. The State and local authorities has yet to provide regulatory mechanisms to ensure the sustainable linkage between enterprises and farmers.  There is also poor infrastructure facilities in the tea production areas. The road network is difficult to pass during the rainy season, delaying delivery and transportation of tea products. Poor storage and drying facilities also affect product quality which in turn downgrades farm gate prices.
These were some of the challenges facing farmer commodity groups and agricultural company business relations. The company promised long-term relationship with farmer groups but need to work together for a favorable supporting policies and programs of government especially on the role of local authority to help in the development of physical support in terms of infrastructure and facilities that help farmers produce and develop quality products.