Considering market strategies for agricultural products

​Quyet Tien Cooperative exports well banana tissue culture products due to establishing a good chain from safe production to consumption.

Proactive to adjust production

In the harvest season of the Lunar New Year 2021, Tra Co shrimp farming area (Tan Phu district) enjoys a bumper crop. Although the output increases, the consumption market is also affected by the Covid - 19 pandemic, causing the price of giant river prawns to decrease compared to the same period last year, but with the selling price at the pond from 160 - 170 thousand VND/ kg, shrimp farmers are still profitable. The farmers also do not worry about stagnant goods as happening in many other agricultural areas during the Tet harvest.

In explanation, Pham Tri Tam, the owner of a shrimp purchasing agent in Tra Co Commune, said: “The shrimp farmers in Tra Co do not focus on harvesting at the peak of Tet, but slowly harvest from the last months of this year to January and February of the following year. Therefore, shrimp prices are quite stable during the harvest season”.

Sharing the same point of view, young farmer Le Dien Bao in Binh Loi Commune (Vinh Cuu District) does not follow the crowd in production. His family's old pomelo garden of over 20 years old still produces high yield with great quality, and is well known by retail buyers and traders for not putting emphasis on the yield by pushing the orchard for full harvest on the Lunar New Year, the time when he usually sells at the best price of the year, but insists on producing 2 Tet pomelo crops every 3 years to maintain the trees. According to Bao: “In the past few years, the area of ​​pomelos in the whole country has increased rapidly, and families is racing to make Tet pomelos, so it's easy to fall into slack. My family does not push the entire area of ​​5 ha of pomelo to be harvested in the Tet crop, but split the crops into other times of the year. According to my observations, the area of natural ​​flowering and fruit setting for harvest after Tet, usually has a high selling price because of scarce supplies”.

Farmers in Dinh Quan district consume their products quite well because of the linkage chain

A long-term strategy is needed

From the perspective of experts and managers, sustainable output for agricultural products is a long-term plan. According to Nguyen Van Muoi, General Secretary of Vietnam Farms and Agricultural Enterprises Association, since the beginning of the year, due to the influence of Covid - 19, all production and consumption activities of agricultural products, especially exports, have been stagnant. Therefore, farmers need to change from the principle of production in which it is necessary to cover the perspective and requirements of the market. Currently, the requirement of both domestic and export markets is that agricultural products are obliged to ensure quality and safety. Farmers must actively change old production practices and apply technological solutions to make products that meet market demand.

In the Lunar New Year crop of 2021, Cao Thi Ten's herb fed chicken farm in Phu Ngoc Commune (Dinh Quan District) does not increase herds, but keeps raising them as usual because she is worried about the output difficulties due to the Covid pandemic. Previously, also considering from the market situation, right from the second quarter of 2020, Ten's farm has actively reduced the size of herds. Thanks to proactively reducing the scale of the livestock, Ms. Ten's farm has not faced too many difficulties in output for the product. However, according to Ten: “The initiative of farmers is just responding to the immediate situation. In the long term, the State should have direction and regulation by means of management tools to produce agricultural products and foodstuff suitable to the needs of both domestic and export markets”.

Nam Vu