Logistics with agricultural trade

Logistics service for agriculture is a great service sector in the logistics service supply chain. Investments in the field will increase values for Vietnam’s agricultural products and increase farmers’ income as well.

Continuing with the theme “Logistics Improving Agriculture Product Value” mentioned in Vietnam Logistics Forum 2019 in Danang and a conclusion in the Conference on reducing logistics costs to agricultural products on July 9th, the Import-Export Department together with the Vietnam Digital Agriculture Association (VIDA) and Vietnam Logistics Business Association held an online program “Logistics with Agricultural Trade”.

This is an opportunity for member enterprises from VIDA and VLA to meet and exchange information to develop their business and agricultural trade logistics. Le Duy Hiep, President of Vietnam Logistics Business Association said: “Logistics service for agriculture is a great service sector in the logistics supply chain. High logistics costs for agricultural trade, accounting for 27% - 28% of product value, and high lost portion after harvest make Vietnam’s agricultural products difficult to compete in markets. The urgent thing to do is to apply technology to processes of harvest, preservation and transport to reduce costs”.

Cold supply chain for agricultural products

Vietnam is a country that produces and exports various kinds of agricultural and aqua-products. Agricultural products are seasonal and vulnerable. Therefore, well done preservation in warehouse and fast transporting goods to consumers can bring higher agricultural values.

Currently, local market is well developed; and the number of convenient store decreases, which also increases the needs to transport cold preserved products as milk, fruits and vegetables, meat, fish and flowers…

Therefore, it is necessary to apply cold chain in production. The cold supply chain helps control temperature, lengthen time of food on display and ensure quality from suppliers to distributors and to retail stores.

Nguyen Quang Thanh, Deputy Director of Hoang Ha International Logistics JSC said: “To ensure good quality to agricultural products, the cold supply chain should ensure standards as suitable temperature for each kind of products, preserve and store and monitor the temperature throughout and without interruption from harvest to the distribution system through a cool, ventilated system…

Origin tracking based on blockchain

Tran Hoang Giang, Executive Director of Blockchain- AkaChain (FPT software) said: “Origin tracking brings good experiences, first to consumers. Having clear and transparent origin tracking, they will feel secure in using the products and they are willing to pay more. If products have good origin tracking, the supply chain will run smoothly, and certainly costs can be saved”.

Origin tracking is an indispensable part in a supply chain and agricultural logistics. In Europe’s standards “origin tracking is an ability to find an origin of a food, animal food, animals or a compound add to food or animal food through process of production, processing or distribution”.

In Vietnam, origin tracking, and agricultural product origin tracking are difficult. First, enterprises have difficulties in maintaining uninterrupted information among chains in the supply chain. There is no driving force for those in the chain to contribute in formation actively. Second, we have simple data only for we are using traditional origin tracking: we focus on an aspect only- details in production or in distribution process… Third, although we can have information from chains taking part in the supply chain, when we have large data, old technology is unable to meet requirements.

Blockchain is the most effective solution to solve problems that origin tracking meets. Blockchain is a decentralized database that stores information in blocks of information linked together by encryption and expands over time. These blocks of information operate independently, that is, when the traceability information is posted on the blockchain system of any enterprise, that business is self-managed. The advantage of blockchain is that it ensures high security, eliminates theft, modification, and all information is not leaked during the distribution process as well as ensures transparency for all parties involved.

Blockchain’s interconnection is relatively fast, all parties participate by themselves in this chain and completely update information with each other in real time, saving space and time of the business.

Extracted from: Vietnam Logistics Review

Author: Unknown