Vietnam largest agriculture expo opens in HCM City

The 17th edition of country’s largest agriculture, food industry and horticulture expo began in Ho Chi Minh City on Thursday, September 21, attended by an estimated 200 exhibitors.

Conferences and seminars on the importance of food safety are the main themes of this year’s four-day event sponsored by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

In a keynote address, Deputy Minister Tran Thanh Nam of MARD, said this year’s event is keyed in on emphasizing the importance of restoring confidence in Vietnamese agriculture in all phases of the food chain.

Agriculture continues to suffer from an unwarranted poor reputation throughout the world, especially in the context of its many fruit and vegetable products as well as farm raised fish and shrimp— and this poor perception negatively affects sales and earnings.

Dao Van Ho, director of the Centre for Trade Promotion of Agriculture, in turn agreed with Mr Nam, saying that the agriculture sector will never fully realize its potential unless it can ensure and demonstrate the safety of its foods to the world’s consumers.

Many Vietnamese agricultural products simply are not competitive in the global marketplace and cannot command the sales prices that their counterparts from other countries can get for their fruits and vegetables because of the poor perception, he noted.

That’s why this year’s focus is on restoring the brand image of the country’s agriculture sector.