(VOVWORLD) - As Vietnamese farm produce exporters and their foreign partners continue to be affected by the global COVID-19 pandemic, online trading has become a viable alternative.
 Thanh Ha lychees are sold on the Lazada e-commerce platform. (Photo: moit.gov.vn) |
On May 14, Thanh Ha lychees appeared in the "Hai Duong stall” on the Lazada e-commerce platform at a discounted price and with expedited delivery, as part of Vietnam’s National Program on Trade Promotion. Lazada, one of Vietnam’s leading online marketplaces, was the first to bring lychees to the e-marketplace.
Pham Van Giang, head of the VietGAP standard lychee group in Thanh Son commune, Thanh Ha district, Hai Duong province, said, “Products brought to e-commerce platforms should be very reliable. All standards of traceability, residues, pesticides, and organic care must be met.”
Hai Duong province is expected to have a total output of 55,000 tons of lychees, 40,000 from Thanh Ha district.
Due to the ongoing pandemic, the provincial government has developed plans to sell lychees on e-commerce platforms like sendo.vn, voso.vn, postmart.vn, and lazada.vn.
Tran Van Quan, Deputy Chairman of the Hai Duong People’s Committee, said sales of lychees and other local agricultural products is a top priority.
“We plan to sell agricultural products on e-commerce platforms during the pandemic. We are promoting the sales of lychees on e-commerce sites and will work to bring other farm products to online marketplaces,” according to Quan.
Amazon Global Selling, the world’s leading e-commerce platform, and Vietnam e-Commerce and Digital Economy Agency (IDEA) have teamed up to help Vietnamese sellers develop cross-border e-commerce through the “Breakthrough era – Vietnamese goods prosper” program.
Lai Viet Anh, Deputy Director of the IDEA under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, said, “The COVID-19 pandemic has created opportunities and challenges for Vietnamese businesses. Production and distribution businesses have changed their strategies toward digital platforms to reach foreign markets. Vietnam has the highest cross-border e-commerce growth rate in the world at 3.7%.”
But Viet Anh underscored the need “to have good guidelines and policies, the effort of businesses, and the support of major global platforms like Amazon to further boost e-commerce.”
 At the launch ceremony to bring Hai Duong’s lychees and other farm products to Lazada e-commerce platform (Photo: VOV) |
Hoang Xuan Truong, Deputy Director of the Center for Agrarian Systems Research and Development (CASRAD) of the Vietnam Academy of Agricultural Sciences, said, “E-commerce trading floors for farm products are important to the growth of Vietnam’s agricultural sector, especially farmers and consumers who haven’t met each other and haven’t had information about each other for a long time.”
“Through e-commerce trading floors, customers can learn about qualified products nationwide, especially OCOP products, and people around the world can consider Vietnam’s safe products when looking for investment opportunities,” said Truong.
Vu Chien Chinh, Marketing Director of the Viet Diamond Investment Company, which produces tea extracted from Lingzhi mushroom, said e-commerce platforms allow sellers and buyers to deal with each other easily and safely.
“We hope through online marketplaces to increase sales and diversify distribution and sales in a way that’s different from traditional methods. The biggest benefit is lower costs for small and medium-sized enterprises in reaching lots of customers both domestically and internationally,” said Chinh.