Pork is processed at a Vinh Anh Food factory. Food safety SSC is a Danish-Vietnamese partnership tasked with improving food safety in the Vietnamese pork value chain. (Photo: VNA)

The deputy minister was speaking at the seminar "Danish experiences and solutions in sustainable agri-food production" on August 17.

Tien underscored Denmark as one of the leading countries in agriculture and sustainable development. Denmark's experience, he believed, would help Vietnamese firms speed up on the road to high-tech and climate-smart agriculture.

Sanne Hoj Andren, Sector Counsellor for Agri-Food at the Embassy of Denmark, revealed that strategic sector cooperation (SSC) is a partnership between Danish public authorities and Vietnamese ministries.

The two countries have SSC in four areas comprising education, health, food safety and statistics. The overall objective of the food safety SSC is to improve feed quality and food safety in Vietnam's pork value chain.

To that end, Danish authorities have been assisting Vietnamese partners in pork origin-tracing, controlling veterinary medicines, controlling food safety in meat processing and capacity building in risk-based management.

Dinh Pham Hien, PSAV Secretariat at the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development's International Cooperation Department, said that the Partnership for Sustainable Agriculture (PAS) was a World Economic Forum initiative aimed at promoting sustainable agriculture worldwide.

Vietnam institutionalised working groups into PAS in 2015 and the Partnership for Sustainable Agriculture in Vietnam (PASV) was tasked with bringing together players in the agricultural sector to establish value chains of Vietnamese produce.

The PASV has increased farming productivity by 17% and farmers' incomes alike, and at the same time, cut CO2 emissions by 43%. The initiative has also helped value chains meet international standards.