Forum on promoting digitalisation to support traceability of agricultural and food products was held in Hanoi on February 28, 2023. (Photo: MARD)

Nguyen Quoc Toan, Director of the Centre for Digital Transformation and Agricultural Statistics under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), emphasized that traceability is one of the eight key issues in digital transformation of the sector. Digitisation in agricultural product traceability requires the engagement and coordination of all parties, from State management agencies to enterprises, cooperatives and farmers.

Promoting digitalisation in traceability of agricultural, food products: Nguyen Quoc Toan, Director of the Centre for Digital Transformation and Agricultural Statistics under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. (Photo: MARD)

State management in this issue aims to meet requirements of international integration, improve transparency and accountability for the sector, and increase farmers’ interests.

Promoting digitalisation in traceability of agricultural, food products: Participants at the Forum. (Photo: MARD)

According to Director Toan, Vietnam currently has around 19,000 cooperatives, 14,200 enterprises and 7,500 processing facilities in the agricultural sector, along with about 9,400 supermarkets and markets, which constitutes the Big Data part of the sector.

Therefore, traceability of agricultural products must be holistic and specific, he stressed.

Huynh Tan Dat, Deputy Director of the Plant Protection Department, said that the Department has built a national database on planting area codes and export packing facilities.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has a product tracing system, which is connected with eight similar systems of eight cities and provinces, with the participation of 3,964 enterprises and 16,987 agricultural and food products.