Abundant production ensures food for domestic market and export

Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Phung Duc Tien.

On July 29, the People's Committee of Tien Giang province issued a notice to suspend operations for firms in industrial parks and industrial clusters operating under the "three on spot" option. Some pangasius processing and exporting firms in Tien Giang, such as Van Duc Tien Giang Export Food Processing Company Limited (Van Duc TG Food), immediately sent a "call for help" text to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. What is the Minister's view on this matter?

First of all, all firms must have a plan to prevent the Covid-19 pandemic. The plan must be feasible, approved by the health authority and the moderating function agencies. Disease prevention is a priority and when there is a feasible plan, the control stage is very important. In fact, many firms have done the production of "three on the spot" effectively. Recently, Bac Ninh, Bac Giang had done very well, but some provinces have quite serious F0 cases in factories. Some firms have 57 cases, some firms have up to 200 cases.

As far as I know, Tien Giang only temporarily suspends operations of firms to review, not immediately ban, not cause difficulties. If there is an attitude of "too left or too right", it will be very difficult in pandemic prevention, it must be creative and be suitable for reality.

Despite facing certain risks, between the plan of suspending production and production under "three on the spot", many firms are still determined to implement "three on the spot". What do you recommend firms?

With the pandemic occurring in many cycles, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has directed seafood, processing and livestock firms to strictly implement pandemic prevention and control. For example, firms apply "three on spot" but must control 5K, test regularly to ensure safety. In fact, the "three on the spot" model can be done very well because orders are not broken and the export markets are not lost to other countries. If the export markets are lost, when the pandemic is under control, it will be very difficult for firms to regain the markets.

To maintain production of firms, the story of supporting employee retention is also an important factor. Skilled workers cannot be trained “from day to day”. When the Covid-19 pandemic is controlled in the country, firms that restore production without both raw materials and labour will fall into a very difficult situation. In case it is not possible to retain workers, firms that send workers to their hometown must also have a certain support policy. Localities need appropriate plans to welcome and organise isolation.

Currently, the Covid-19 pandemic is complicated in many major localities across the country, such as Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Binh Duong… With maintaining the operation of agricultural, forestry and fishery firms, for production, how is the supply of food currently regulated?

Not only this year but also in 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic broke out with a series of difficulties like floods, accumulative storms, the production capacity of the agricultural industry was still relatively abundant, ensuring a good food source. At the present time, it can be said production still ensures supply.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has assigned tasks to Deputy Ministers in charge of implementing online conferences with localities. With cultivation, the winter-spring crop has performed well, now it's the autumn-winter crop, summer-autumn crop must continue to be deployed. Other solutions are on fishing and aquaculture; poultry production development; pig breeding development and cattle raising must be implemented.

Quarantine checkpoints strictly control but do not mean prohibition. Some agricultural materials must be circulated conveniently to ensure the new effective production cycle, ensure output of agricultural products for the upcoming cycle. If we focus on fighting the pandemic without focusing on production, the "dual goal" will not be achieved, and then we will fall into a difficult situation due to lack of agricultural products, lack of materials, and lack of supply to serve the domestic market as well as exports.

If the Covid-19 pandemic continues to develop complicatedly, how will the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development develop scenarios to ensure the supply of agricultural products for domestic and export markets, avoiding stagnation in some places but shortage in others?

Areas where Covid-19 has occurred are isolated and blocked. However, provinces, cities and regions where there is no pandemic or industrial parks and export processing zones of firms are organised normal production. In difficult years, Vietnam had "both fought the enemy and produced", the current time; we have both fought the pandemic and organised normal production to achieve "dual goals".

Localities and areas that lack human resources will have the support of the armed forces such as the army, police and other organisations that can be shared with them to ensure production comprehensively and thoroughly. If the organisation implements it seriously, agricultural products will not be redundant, and there will be no situation where maximum raised pigs cannot be gotten out of the barn and harvested pineapples are left in the field they cannot be brought into the consumption area.

For the southern region alone, 18 provinces and cities with HCM City have a very large population. Therefore, the organisation of distribution and consumption must ensure the principle of anti-pandemic but must also ensure circulation; promote production and solve difficulties in agricultural product consumption.