Seminar shares Denmark’s agricultural experience with Vietnamese firms
VOV.VN - A seminar running with the title of "Danish experiences and solutions in sustainable agri-food production" was recently held with the aim of restoring long-term co-operative relations in the fields of agriculture and food following a hiatus of nearly two years caused by COVID-19.
According to information given by Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Phung Duc Tien, as many as 135 Danish firms have opened branches in Vietnam, with these firms actively contributing to the growth of various sectors, including agriculture.
Deputy Minister Tien underscored Denmark as one of the leading countries in terms of agriculture and sustainable development. Indeed, the Danish experiences, he believes, can greatly help Vietnamese firms in speeding up the process of making use of high-tech and climate-smart agriculture.
Sanne Hoj Andren, sector counsellor for Agri-Food at the Embassy of Denmark, revealed that strategic sector co-operation (SSC) is a partnership between Danish public authorities and Vietnamese ministries.
The two countries have SSC in four areas comprising of education, health, food safety, and statistics. The overall objective of the food safety SSC is to improve the overall quality and food safety in the country’s pork value chain.
In order to achieve this goal, Danish authorities have been assisting Vietnamese partners in pork origin-tracing, controlling veterinary medicines, controlling food safety in meat processing, as well as capacity building in risk-based management.
Dinh Pham Hien, secretariat of the Partnership for Sustainable Agriculture in Vietnam (PSAV) 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.
Institutionalised working groups in the PAS in 2015 and the PASV were tasked with bringing together players in the agricultural sector in order to establish value chains of Vietnamese produce.
The PASV has contributed to increasing farming productivity by 17% and farmer incomes alike, whilst simultaneously cutting CO2 emissions by 43%. The initiative has also greatly helped value chains come up to international standards.
Jeppe Sondergaard Pedersen, international chief adviser of the Danish Agriculture and Food Council, said Denmark has 4,121 organic farms which cultivated 310,000 ha of land in 2020.
Given so much land has been claimed by cultivation, the country must become more sustainable by embracing circular production and resource-efficient approaches. In line with this, local produce remains competitive through higher yields and has increased its efficiency, whilst adding more value and being sold in new markets.
Troels Vensild, head of the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration's International Cooperation Division, underscored Denmark as being among the world's leading sustainable food producers.
Green transition is therefore key for Danish firms as they seek to export sustainable products, devise resource-efficient solutions, and improve technologies globally.