The conference on logistics chains for agro-forestry-aquatic product exports held in HCM City on December 25. (Photo: VNA) Nguyen Anh Phong, Deputy Director of the Institute of Policy andStrategy for Agriculture and Rural Development, pointed out that Vietnam is a big exporter of agricultural products, but the majority of its agriculturalproduction is of small scale and scattered, making it hard for purchasing farm producein bulk. Besides, the long and narrow shape of the territory leads to highdemand for logistics services to gather, preserve, and transit farm produce in mainproduction zones.
The trend of large-scaled agricultural production and theincreasing diversity of products have also boosted demand for logistics servicesin the agro-forestry-fishery sector, he noted, highlighting improvements in logisticsinfrastructure in recent years such as roads built to link with rural areas andports, markets upgraded, and such services as transport, preservation, storage,classification, and packaging diversified.
However, Phong added, agricultural value chains in Vietnam are still facingmany logistics problems, including high expenses, infrastructure developmentunable to keep up with real demand, and limited service supplying capacity. In particular,logistics expenses currently account for 12% of the production costs for aquaticproducts, 23% of that for wood products, 29% of fruits and vegetables’, and 30%of rice’s. The expenses in Vietnam are respectively 6%, 12%, and 300% higherthan those of Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore.
Besides, transport infrastructure has not met farm producetransport demand, agro-forestry-aquatic products have still been transportedmainly by road, logistics centres have not been connected with one another, mostlogistics businesses are small and have not been connected in chains, and thelogistics system for cross-border trade has yet to develop on par with itspotential and real demand, he said.
Workers process tra fish for export at a factory in Dong Thap province. (Photo: VNA) To turn logistics into an impetus for agricultural development,it is necessary to form a comprehensive and effective logistics service systemto help raise the quality, added value, and competitiveness of Vietnamese farmproduce. Therefore, it is critical to build and implement a plan on the work by2030 to tackle existing bottlenecks and facilitate agro-forestry-aquatic product exports, he continued.
Tran Chi Dung, head of the technology and innovation division of the VietnamLogistics Business Association, suggested implementing three projects: establishinga cross-border land logistics chain for agro-forestry-aquatic products that connectsVietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and China; forming a logistics infrastructure chain thatis combined with e-commerce and multimodal transport; and setting up an airlogistics chain linking the ASEAN and Chinese markets
He held that Vietnam has seven economic regions with differentproduction and infrastructure conditions as well as different demand for marketconnection. The design and building of regional logistics centres requirethorough consideration and assessment to ensure projects are effective and meetdevelopment demand in the long term./.
VNA
