At the conference, domestic and international experts, leaders of the Farmers' Associations, and cooperatives in the Mekong Delta region exchanged experiences and proposed practical solutions to promote the development of the agricultural cooperative economy.
Speaking at the event, Deputy Head of the Cooperative Economic Department under the Ministry of Planning and Investment said that Vietnam currently has around 22,000 agricultural cooperatives out of 34,000 cooperatives, accounting for 65 percent of the total number of cooperatives of the country, with 3.8 million members. These cooperatives play an important role in agriculture and rural areas. However, their operations have low quality. In addition, they only provide a limited range of services to their members; lack connectivity with members and businesses, and the application of science and technology.
Delegates noted that the cooperatives need to focus on innovation and improvement of quality, especially building sustainable value chains from production to consumption, improving production processes and quality control measures, ensuring food safety and the traceability of products, building brands for Vietnamese agricultural products and enhancing their competitiveness in domestic and international markets.
