HCM City (VNS/VNA) - To be successful, agricultural start-ups musthave long-term business strategies, strengthen linkages in the start-upeco-system and understand the market they target, experts have said.

Pham Lan Anh, head of the communication department at the Ca Mau PetroleumFertiliser Joint Stock Company, said hi-tech agriculture offers solutions toconsumers and businesses’ demand for clean, high-quality produce, improvesfarming productivity and creates reliable data.

But the use of technology remains limited since it is still relatively new inVietnam and many farmers are still used to traditional methods, she said.

The country has a diverse range of agricultural products, but does not have aconsumer market based on actual supply and demand, and farmers lower prices tosell their products and compete with rivals, she pointed out.

“It’s difficult to build a brand for Vietnamese agricultural products becauseof low economic value,” she said.

“Farmers only pay attention to producing raw agricultural products instead ofcreating added value for the products.”

Most farming start-ups do not share information and business opportunities witheach other, making it difficult to build agricultural markets, experts said ata panel discussion hi-tech agriculture start-ups in Ho Chi Minh City last week.

Most do not clearly define the objectives for each stage of their business,they said.

Most want to quickly sell out products instead of patiently marketing andbranding them, but to be successful they need to build a long-term businessstrategy and strengthen linkages within the start-up eco-system, they pointedout.

Many are household or individual businesses who do not have enough resources,making the linkages imperative, they said.

They should not expect profits immediately like other commercial activities andservices, need to have a thorough understanding of the market, culture andclimate and should network with professionals in various fields to succeed,they added.

The discussion is part of the Innovation Start-up Project Competition organisedsince 2012 by the HCM City Business Study and Assistance Centre incollaboration with the Rural Youth Committee of Central Youth Union.

The innovative agricultural start-up project has been supporting the country’sstart-up community for the last 10 years.

It has organised more than 320 training classes, seminars and talks for morethan 25,000 participants./.