Hadico Asserting Position

 As an agriculture business, Hanoi Agriculture Investment and Development Co., Ltd (HADICO) is performing an important task of Hanoi’s agricultural sector: Developing high-quality vegetable, plant, flower and rice varieties, maintaining and preserving rare Mia chicken genes, supplying pigs and storing first-line plants, ensuring the sustainable agricultural development of the capital city in the future.

 

Dr Phan Minh Nguyet, Chairman of the Board of Members and General Director of HADICO, said Vietnam is an agricultural country with many items on the top of the world but our position is blurred on the world map of agriculture. Global rice trade generated US$30 billion a year and Vietnam takes about US$3 billion and the global trade of vegetables and fruits values some US$200 billion a year, but Vietnam accounts for only US$1 billion. Many of Vietnam's agricultural products are trusted by worldwide consumers but they use foreign brands. And, HADICO is a place where Dr Nguyet places his trust and expectations.

 

In 2005, Hadico was set up from the merger of Hanoi Seedling Company with seven other units with the missions and tasks of producing safe, high-quality agricultural products for capital citizens and for national food security. It is very difficult to profit from agriculture but HADICO never gets discouraged or distracted from its missions. From an initial 210 employees and more than 40 ha of land, HADICO was proud to overcome all difficulties and challenges with the nation to become a powerful multi-business firm with more than 6,000 employees working in nearly 30 subsidiaries and over 5,000 ha of land. It has also set up long-term partnerships with domestic and foreign partners.

 

In 2013, with the continuous efforts of the entire staff, the company achieved remarkable results. The company’s revenue grossed over VND741 billion and average employee monthly income is VND4.16 million. The preservation of Mia chicken care genes and species in Duong Lam commune, undertaken by HADICO Poultry Husbandry Enterprise, brought huge social effects. In 2013, the enterprise provided tens of thousands of one-day old chickens for farmers in Soc Son, Ba Vi and Son Tay districts. In 2014, it plans to carry out a Mia chicken conservation project led by the Hanoi Department of Agriculture and Rural Development. With 13 incubators, each capable of keeping more than 20,000 eggs, it is the only unit in the capital city to conserve and hatch the rare Mia chicken.

 

In spite of achieving very good results, General Director Phan Minh Nguyet could not hide his concern about Vietnamese agriculture being driven by smallholding, fragmented and incoherent production rather than large-scale commercial production. Production areas lack specialisation, synchronous infrastructure and long-term development vision. In addition, Vietnam has overemphasised exportation while disregarded the domestic market in the past time. Organic agricultural products produced by farmers are unsellable or sold at low prices, while unguaranteed foreign agricultural products, imported across the border, are flooding the market although selling prices are higher. For the time being, it is important that we need to tighten management on agricultural products while domestic farmers must focus on producing high-yield and high-quality products to build up the brand name for Vietnamese agricultural products. Therefore, HADICO has taken concrete steps to direct investment in the right way and right place. The company always focuses on producing commodities Hanoi consumers need, like organic vegetables, tea, pork, chicken and fish. Vietnam's agriculture needs new visions and new thoughts to have fundamental changes from width to depth, and has specific strategies for every plant, livestock and region to have best products for domestic demand and for export. It needs to build closed crop cultivation and livestock husbandry models, from seedling and stock selection to caring, harvesting, processing, preservation and packaging, to ensure the best quality of products supplied to consumers.

 

According to the company development direction, enterprises will be operated as farms. Accordingly, livestock farming will be combined with crop cultivation and products will be combined with trading and services. Slaughter will be done in the suburbs of Hanoi like Thuong Tin and Phuc Tho districts to set up a “clean food supply belt" for the capital city. The company will build large-scaled slaughtering and food processing facilities, enhance corporate prestige on the market; and attract and acquire advanced agricultural technologies and techniques from Japan, South Korea, Israel and the Netherlands to boost its business operations.

 

Not only striving to become an excellent business, HADICO is also determined to lead the Vietnamese agriculture and always stick to continuous evolution of the market economy to make the best products and services for the market. HADICO also advocates using non-farming land for housing development and recreational zone construction.

 

The devotion and tireless effort of Dr Phan Minh Nguyet and his employees have changed the public outlook on farm sector labour, which was previously associated with poverty. Its achievements will be the solid foundation and momentum for HADICO to enter a new phase of development of HADICO, Hanoi’s agriculture and the entire country.