Hanoi (VNA) – Businesses must changetheir thought about the supply chain and methods to organise it for meetingincreasingly stringent standards of import markets, a representative of theBusiness Association of High-Quality Vietnamese Goods has said.

The association held a workshop on May 23 tohelp enterprises gain an insight into regulations and standards in countriesimporting Vietnam’s agricultural products.

Chairwoman of the association Vu Kim Hanh said:“We are facing a challenge of technical barriers set up by import countries.Instead of focusing solely on verifying the quality of final products,developed countries request a whole process to be verified to prevent risks.”

She said each step in the supply chain must havea standard to prevent risks. Meanwhile, both farmers and processors must alsostrictly comply with the production process.

The business association has established a newset of criteria for high-quality Vietnamese goods so as to help producerssatisfy importers’ requirements, she noted.

Hanh also urged state management agencies tomake new regulations to assist Vietnamese firms in meeting import countries’standards.

Nguyen Kim Thanh, a specialist in supply chainsand food safety, said European markets require food safety and thefarm-to-table chain, as well as producers’ responsibility, to be ensured.

Dao Duc Huan from the Institute for Policy andStrategy for Agriculture and Rural Development said numerous opportunities andchallenges will appear for Vietnamese products during the integration process.

Exporters are likely to encounter difficulties posed by import countries’technical barriers. Therefore, producers and processors must make biggerinvestments into building and managing safe food-oriented supply chains, hestressed. -VNA