Bac Giang moves to improve Yen The hill chicken trademark. -Illustrative image (Photo: bacgiang.gov)

Bac Giang (VNA)🌳 - Yen The district in northern Bac Giang province provides the market with around 12-14 million hill chickens worth 1.5 trillion VND every year, turning free-range chicken farming into sustainable livelihoods for local people.

Local authorities have focused on strengthening trade promotion activities and building the “Ga doi Yen The” (Yen The hill chicken) brand name, which has been protected and recognised in Laos, China, and Singapore.

In the domestic market, the hill chickens have become popular among customers in many cities and provinces nationwide.

To boost consumption, Bac Giang targets both domestic and export markets but top priority is given to domestic markets, especially in Hanoi and major cities. It is also looking to export Yen The hill chickens to ASEAN and China in the near future.

The district will also continue restructuring chicken varieties in farming to improve quality, towards making inroads into more difficult markets such as Japan and Europe.

According to the Secretary of the district Party Committee Bui The Chung, the local authority will pay due regard to promoting its potential and strengths and taking measures to improve quality, contributing to boosting the incomes of local people.

꧑ Under its agricultural production development strategy to 2030 and on the basis of restructuring agricultural production towards improving the quality and value of products, including Yen The hill chickens, the district has made efforts to promote production links and renovate breeding methods. It also adopted mechanisms to encourage the development of enterprises, cooperatives, and cooperative groups in husbandry, thus building agricultural production value chains.

Illustrative image (Photo: VNA)

The district authority has created the necessary conditions for households, businesses, cooperatives, and cooperative groups to access credit for livestock production and processing and to form closed chains in producing, processing, and marketing Yen The hill chicken products.

In the future, Yen The district will promote the transfer of scientific and technical advances in raising and processing Yen The hill chickens in order to improve quality, ensure food safety and hygiene, and increase competitiveness. 

Priority will be given to applying and transferring new, advanced high technologies in raising and processing hill chickens, expanding hill chicken production areas in accordance with VietGAP standards, and forming safe hill chicken production areas.

The district will also encourage businesses, organisations, and individuals to invest in developing breeding and processing facilities in order to diversify processed products. 

The locality has paid heed to introducing and promoting the product in parallel with expanding the market through effectively implementing policies and mechanisms on supporting the protection of intellectual property rights, trademark protection, geographical indications, and product brands for products made from Yen The hill chicken.

It has also built a mechanism to support the development of the Yen The hill chicken brand to meet the standards of the national “One Commune, One Product” (OCOP) programme. 

Yen The is a mountainous district in Bac Giang province with an area of more than 300 sq km, mainly hills and semi-mountainous land suitable for agricultural and forestry development in combination with livestock. 

The locality quickly identified hill chickens as its main livestock group, and planned a high-quality, large-scale production area.

Yen The hill chicken was granted a certificate of trademark registration by the National Office of Intellectual Property at the Ministry of Science and Technology in 2011. It was the first livestock product in Vietnam to be provided with trademark and monopoly protection.

The district's chicken products have continuously won prestigious prizes since 2011, and were among four Vietnamese products to receive “The best products and food of Southeast Asia-ASEAN” Cup in 2013.

To sustainably maintain and develop products, the district has issued and implemented projects to support their sustainable development in line with VietGAP standards in the 2013-2015 and 2016-2020 periods. 

The district’s chicken numbers are maintained at 4-4.5 million heads, primarily in Tien Thang, Canh Nau, Tam Tien, and Dong Vuong communes.

ꦏ The locality has also planned hi-tech concentrated breeding areas in Dong Tam, Dong Ky, Canh Nau, Tien Thang, Tam Hiep, and Tam Tien communes, and developed large-scale hill chicken farming models./.