Within the framework of the project “Improving Women’s Capacity in Building Sustainable Livelihood Models Based on Effective Management and Use of Water Resources in the Upstream of A Sap River in A Luoi District, Thua Thien Hue Province, Vietnam”, the Center for Social Research and Development (CSRD) organized a 2-day study tour for people in the highland district of A Luoi to Hue City. This is an opportunity for the A Luoi community to get acquainted with new concepts of market mechanisms, learn about policies which support community development, startups, innovation, market connection, etc. The visiting group consists of 36 people, including representatives of the Department of Fisheries of Thua Thien Hue province, Aluoi District’s Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Women’s Union, heads and vice-heads of community livelihood groups, representatives of Women’s Unions and people of 5 communes (Hong Thai, Hong Thuong, Hong Kim, Son Thuy, Quang Nham) which have participated in the Project.
The Needs of the Study Tour for the A Luoi Highland Community
The purpose of organizing a study tour to Hue City for A Luoi people who have participated in the IP 2 Project is rather ambitious: introducing the Aluoi people to technology management process, intellectual property, entrepreneurship, and innovation and others. The organizers of the tour also want A Luoi people in the group, most of whom belong to ethnic minorities, to learn about policies of supporting small and medium-sized enterprises, about the process of branding products, and the preliminary processing agricultural products to meet the requirements of supermarkets, and grasping market demand trends for the products in which A Luoi has strengths.
With the goal set above, during two days in Hue city, people visited some establishments including state agencies, enteprises, agricultural markets and supermarkets. At the Thua Thien Hue Department of Science and Technology, visitors were introduced to technology management process, approaching the concepts of intellectual property, entrepreneurship, and innovation. Here, the A Luoi community was also introduced to resolutions 22/2020 and 21/2022 of the People’s Council of Thua Thien Hue province on intellectual property and support for small and medium-sized enterprises. Next, the group visited Hue Viet Organic Company Limited, HESA store – Selected clean foods in Hue and visited the seafood processing facility at Vien Dong Seafood Joint Stock Company. Here, the group also saw in firsthand the community ecological model, learned about operating processes in the seafood sector including: fish breeding area, commercial fish farming area, preliminary processing facility and aquatic products processing facility. The A Luoi people also learned about the production process, branding and consumption of aquatic products and related items.
The community at market in Hue city where the agricultural and aquatic products are consumed.
The knowledge gained from the study tour in Hue City really helps A Luoi people in developing their livelihood model. Since August 2022, within the framework of the project “Improving women’s capacity in building sustainable livelihood models based on effective management and use of water resources in the upstream of A Sap river in the district A Luoi, Thua Thien Hue province, Vietnam”, people in the above 5 communes have been supported to build 10 livelihood models. Through monitoring the implementating process of building livelihood models of all groups, CSRD realized that people do not pay attention, or even they do not know that they need to learn the requirements of the market in both quality and quantity, especially of those which potentially and sustainably consume their products such as supermarkets. In addition, knowledge about innovation, entrepreneurship and market access is quite new to the A Luoi highland community. Prejudices and old ways in producing and consuming products have hindered the economic development of the community. Meanwhile, A Luoi has great potential in developing agriculture, livestock raising, tourism services and fisheries. In particular, A Luoi is a locality with many specialties of agriculture, forrestry, fisheriy products and spiritual cultural values whcih have not been exploited reasonably and effectively.
During the tour, the community learned and saw firsthand the seafood production process from fish breeding, commercial fish farming and seafood processing as well as they learned about several issues related to entrepreneurship and innovation, technology transfer, production techniques, traceability, barcodes, product branding. The knowledge gained through the study tour helps the community clearly see, understand and visualize the basic steps in the production, processing and branding of their products in the future. Therefore, the things they saw and heard through the study tour were really useful for people, contributing to forming their new thinking in developing their livelihoods, building their brands and consuming their products.
Support the community in building and forming aquaculture livelihood groups which are linked to market needs
The Significance of Building and Forming a Brand for a Product
The traditional way of production and consumption often retrains the economic value of goods which are only limited to the purpose of improving the living standards of certain individuals and households but not aimed at the longer-term goal of development of sustainable livelihoods for the whole community in locality. Limitations in market access and product branding make it difficult for people to consume products. Product consumption often depends on traditional sales channels and floating traders. This causes prices to be unstable, prices of goods to be squeezed, or a phenomenon known as good harvest – devaluation.
Ms. Nguyen Thi Hue – Director of Hue Viet Organic was talking about the value of building brands and labels for products.
Mr. Van Dinh Que – Son Thuy community expressed: “I myself and other local producers have still been difficult in selling products. The products we produced are mainly consumed at domestic markets but not go further than district markets. Brand building and trademarks have not been paid needed attention and that causes the post-crop value to be low and very unstable consumption. Apart from that, the most difficult for expanding production and science-technology applying until now has still been the shotage of financial resources. I have still been looking forward to receiving further support concerning this matter”.
Supporting and promoting A Luoi people to apply science and technology, innovate, be creative, confidently start a business, develop ideas and livelihood initiatives is what the project as well as the goal of this activity is aimed at. The visit and working session with Hue Viet Organic and Vien Dong Seafood Joint Stock Company helped everyone realize and understand the importance of these issues. The production and consumption of goods is closely linked to building product brands which helps to shape position in the market for the products they produce. It has been shown that branded products have an economic value 3-4 times higher than that of conventional equivalent products. This means that brands and trademarks are very important for products in market consumption. Product brands are built based on certain criteria set for the production process and which manufacturers must always strictly follow. This is neccesary for ensuring both safe production conditions and producing goods in accordance with the quality criteria. All these together contribute to reinforcing the position of the products and improving its competitiveness at the market.
Once a product brand is built and affirmed in the market, it will be easier to reach consumers. The branding process involves traceability, ensuring safety criteria in production and product quality. That will be the basis to help consumers easily choose and feel secure when using the product.
Visit the production area of Vien Dong Seafood Joint Stock Company in Thuan An, Hue city.
After discussing with the visiting units, the A Luoi community also realized many of their own problems which relates to livelihood development. For A Luoi locality, it is important to develop livelihoods based on available conditions of agricultural products, community tourism, seasonal products, etc. There are also needs to connect cooperatives of different types to form a specialized commodity value chain. This both meets supply needs and avoids small and fragmented production. For producers, it is necessary to increase the element of responsibility in the process of producing and supplying products, avoiding the situation of “everyone does their job, everyone sells”. The production process needs to focus on product quality criteria. In order for the product to be brought to market to ensure both quality and meet the requirements of form and design, it requires not only compliance with care and harvesting processes, but also the need to invest effort and techniques in the production process, processing and transporting goods.
From supportive policies to practical lessons: Necessary, important but not enough
There are available of policies and programs which aim at supporting and promoting startups and innovation in Thua Thien Hue such as resolutions 22/2020 and 21/2022 of the People’s Council of Thua Thien Hue province as well as programs within the project “Ancient Capital Startups”. The above mentioned policies and programs have created opportunities for individuals, groups, enterprises and communities in starting or creative developing their business. However, besides the advantages, there are still inadequacies in communication and lack of specific measures to realize the above policies and programs in real life. In addition, concerning participants, inedequate financial resources, lack of economic knowledge are the major challenges that hinder the process of implementing start-up and innovation activities for the A Luoi community.
Ms. Tran Thi Thuy Yen – Deputy Director of the Provincial Department of Science and Technology at the working session with the A Luoi community.
Ms. Tran Thi Thuy Yen – Deputy Director of the Provincial Department of Science and Technology said: “The Department pays special attention, support and encouragement to localities in the journey of entrepreneurship, innovation, and access to science and technology. A Luoi has a lot of potential for economic development. We should boldly develop local and seasonal agricultural products, and also need to know how to take advantage of resources from state policies and local national target programs to further promote the process. innovation and entrepreneurship not only in agriculture but in all other fields.”
The 2-day tour may not be able to fully satisfy the community’s wishes. People need more activities that help connect them with other stakeholders such as the Department of Science and Technology, local authorities, relevant departments and associations which provide them more opportunities to learn and receive support. For the A Luoi community, this is a relatively new issue, requiring more time to communicate, improve knowledge, visit actual models and implement and apply in the near future.
Video of study tour:
