Enterprises are not interested in investing in chain links

​Binh Loc Commune, Long Khanh City has built a large rambutan field, but the products are still mainly sold to traders, only a few businesses participating in the linkage chain. Photo: P.A

In addition, the localities with the orientation to develop urban agriculture and high-tech agriculture are very interested in attracting investment enterprises, but they are not as expected.

 Difficult to attract investment

In 2014, the People's Committee of Dong Nai Province issued a decision on "policies to support and encourage the development of cooperation and production linkages associated with agricultural product consumption and construction of large fields". Accordingly, the whole province has 16 approved large field projects. The enterprise is said to be the leader in leading the agricultural production value chain to develop towards large-scale commodity production, applying high technology, especially in the development and expansion of consumption markets. Accordingly, localities are particularly interested in attracting businesses to participate in the linkage chain, but the number of enterprises participating in large field investments is still very limited.

Many localities have held many conferences to meet businesses with the goal of calling for businesses to invest in the agricultural sector. Priority is given to attracting projects to build agricultural product processing factories, high-tech agricultural projects, to invest in harvesting and post-harvest preservation technology as well as to link product consumption at home and abroad. However, the effectiveness is not as fruitful as expected.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Cat Tien, Chairperson of Xuan Loc District People's Committee, said that the district is implementing a project to develop sustainable agricultural commodity production in the 2018-2025 period in association with the goal of building a new rural district as a model of the whole country. In the context of limited resources from the locality, to develop the agricultural industry quickly and sustainably, the investment of enterprises, especially large-scale enterprises, plays a very important role. The locality strives to build infrastructure to meet the needs of enterprises in production, processing, and consumption. However, in recent years, Xuan Loc's investment attraction in agriculture has been modest.

Long Thanh District is also developing a plan to develop hi-tech agriculture, organic agriculture associated with processing industry and product consumption market with the goal of developing agriculture worthy of airport urban in the future. Many communes such as Binh An, Cam Duong, Bau Can, etc. have planned the agricultural land area for high-tech agricultural projects. However, the attracting businesses to invest in high-tech agricultural projects is not easy to implement. Mr. Pham Ngoc Vinh, Deputy Head of Economic Department of Long Thanh District said that, based on agricultural production areas planned to develop hi-tech agriculture, the district also developed a plan to support the infrastructure system meeting the necessary requirements for electricity, water, roads, etc., creating favorable conditions for businesses to make investment. However, the current difficulty is that high-tech agricultural investment requires a large amount of capital. In addition, the implementation of construction works on agricultural land is currently entangled with many procedures for land, construction, introduction of investment locations, etc., so not many businesses are interested in participating.

Trang Bom has thousands of hectares of specialized banana cultivation areas but has not yet built a large field for banana trees for export. Photo by P.A

The link is easy to be disrupted

Difficulty attracting businesses to invest in sustainable linkages is one of the major challenges in transforming agriculture out of the traditional way and into large-scale commodities. In which, attracting investment processing enterprises is still a difficult problem. Many linked chains have businesses involved, but the lack of sustainability is also the reason why agricultural output is still precarious.

Private enterprise Tuan Sang used to participate in the large field project of An Vien cashew tree in An Vien Commune, Trang Bom District but after 1 year, the enterprise withdrew from the project because the program was not effective. Mr. Pham Van Tuan, the owner of this business said: “A few years ago, An Vien built a project of a large cashew tree field with an area of ​​thousands of hectares. In each cashew harvest, businesses can buy thousands of tons of cashews from this raw material area. But this raw material area is shrinking every year, the large field program is also ineffective, so the enterprise withdraws from the project.”

The large field project of green-skinned pomelo trees VietGAP of Ta Lai Commune, Tan Phu District was implemented with enterprises participating in the linkage chain, committed to consuming clean pomelo products for farmers at good prices to supply to the market. However, after the implementation period, businesses have quietly withdrawn from the project, the organic pomelos of farmers are still mainly consumed through traders at normal prices.

Many businesses have the desire to invest but then withdraw because there are many barriers. Mr. Vo Quan Huy, Director of Huy Long An - My Binh Co., Ltd., is known as Vietnam's Banana King. Huy Long An Company is also the first Vietnamese enterprise to export bananas to Japanese supermarket systems. With the goal of promoting export, Vietnamese bananas compete well in the world market, this business is interested in investing in large field projects to grow bananas for export. Many years ago, this enterprise inquired with the desire to invest in a large field project to grow tissue transplanted bananas for export in Trang Bom District. But so far, businesses have not invested because farmers and businesses have not found the common benefits.

Over the years, localities in the province have also been very interested in attracting businesses to invest in agricultural product processing. But in fact, the number of enterprises investing in the field of agricultural product processing in the localities is still very limited, mainly small, and micro enterprises, so the goal of developing the processing industry, especially investment in deep processing is still not commensurate with its potential.

Phan Anh