The Institute of Policy and Strategy for Agriculture and Rural Development said the Viet Nam Agriculture Market Information Project helps improve Vietnamese agricultural producers, traders and managers’ ability to better respond to the market.

The US$4.95 million project is funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and will be implemented by the southern office of the institute and Agriteam Canada between now and March 2011.

The agricultural market information service (AMIS), which will be run by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development through the institute’s southern office, will improve co-operation among state departments.

The institute’s director, Dang Kim Son, said AMIS would link small-sized producers and traders with large ones, and producers with consumers and exporters.

"All their rights as well as business risks will be shared and discussed," Son said.

The project will take place in the provinces of Lam Dong, Binh Thuan, Dong Nai, Long An, Tien Giang, Vinh Long, and Kien Giang and in HCM City and Can Tho.

It will focus on vegetables and fruit, which are more vulnerable to market fluctuations and can easily spoil in a short period of time.

"We have many times seen hundreds of tonnes of vegetables and fruits thrown away and hundreds of hectares of vegetable areas and fruit trees cut down because farmers had little market information about where they could sell," Son said.

Information access

Director of the institute’s southern office Dr. Tran Tien Khai, who will also be responsible for implementing the project, will set up the Market Information Service.

"The service will be operated by the public sector and will regularly collect information on prices and quantities of agricultural products, particularly vegetables and fruit, and then disseminate this information on a regular basis to farmers, traders, government officials, policy-makers and others," Khai said.

"The service will also provide information about potential market channels, payment requirements, packaging and quality," he added.

The project will begin a Market Intelligence Service for exporters to assist them in identifying markets and marketing channels, he said.

Khai said the project would work with local agricultural and rural development departments and local statistics offices to collect information.

It will work with provincial agricultural extension agents and institutes or universities to organise marketing training for farmers and seek data on overseas agricultural product markets, Khai said.

Son said the project would be a model that the agriculture ministry would replicate in other sectors