HCMC – A Ministry of Agricultural and Rural Development working group today, August 25, suggested HCMC pilot a program to provide farm produce combo packs at affordable prices of VND100,000-150,000 each to residents during the two weeks of stricter social distancing measures.
According to the ministry, more than 1,250 suppliers of agro produce and food products have registered with working group to provide a wide selection of items, such as aquatic products, vegetables, fruits, eggs, meat, foodstuff, processed farm produce and other essential food items.
Besides this, the working group has piloted a program to supply welfare combo packs including five types of farm produce, with each pack weighing 10 kilograms.
The program offers three main combo packs. The affordable combo is priced at VND100,000 and includes root vegetables, pineapples, cucumbers and limes. The average combo, priced at VND150,000, will have root vegetables, green vegetables and eggs. The last combo will comprise root vegetables, green vegetables, rice and eggs, and its price will be a little higher at VND200,000. The other combos will include seafood, meats and eggs.
The program has received a positive response from consumers in the Mekong Delta as well as those in HCMC. It has helped with the authorities’ efforts of restricting residents from going out to shop or visit different places to buy food, thus reducing the Covid transmission risk.
To date, the program supplying 10-kilogram food combo packs has formed a network of food warehouses and can supply 80,000-100,000 food combo packs to HCMC per day, equivalent to 800-1,000 tons of food.
The working group also revealed that localities in the delta can ensure the supply of over 4,500 tons of food and foodstuff to HCMC per day.
Therefore, the group suggested the city prioritize launching the pilot program to help address the farm produce congestion facing farmers in the southern provinces as well as help the city’s residents get easier access to the affordable food combo packs.
The HCMC departments of Agricultural and Rural Development, Industry and Trade were required to pilot the program. They were told to give enterprises participating in the program guidelines on how to register their goods delivery locations, which have to comply with anti-virus regulations.
Vehicles of businesses participating in the pilot program will be given permission to operate during the stay-at-home period.
