VOV.VN - The Republic of Korea (RoK)'s smart farm sector is gaining greater motivation to penetrate the Vietnamese market as a basis for further expansion into Southeast Asia thanks to advanced technology, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (MAFRA) said on July 18.

At a press conference held on July 18 in Sejong city in the RoK, the MAFRA said that 15 companies operating in the field of smart farms in the RoK participated in the Vietnam-Korea Plus Partnership Week 2024 organised on July 16 by Ho Chi Minh City and conducted 105 trade promotion meetings alongside Vietnamese partners.

The parties signed a total of eight Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) worth US$2.69 million. Through this event, officials and businessmen in the Vietnamese agricultural sector showed a keen interest in the RoK’s smart farms and related technologies.

Korean smart farm enterprise AVALVE captured special attention with its presentation on the successes achieved in the nation and the prospects ahead for promoting ties in the field of smart agriculture between the two nations.

In November, 2022, AVALVE signed a MoU on co-operation in the field of smart agriculture with the Vietnam National Centre for Fertilizer Testing (NCFT) and then build a pilot vertical farm to grow ginseng sprouts in the nation in February, 2023.

Furthermore, in an effort to export the smart farm model Demo Smart Farm which is a model smart greenhouse built in Hanoi that received good feedback, AFFES company also signed a contract worth US$370,000 to complete a smart farm in Indonesia in July this year.

The project aims to introduce the RoK’s advanced smart farm technologies to promising overseas markets, thereby laying the foundation for Korean companies to export products and technology to the world.

MAFRA has chosen Vietnam as an export destination of Southeast Asia as it works to promote and export Korean smart farm products and technologies and build a pilot smart farm in Hanoi from 2022. This is a steel frame greenhouse farm model which is equipped with an environmental control system.

Lee Sang Min, director of MAFRA's Agri-Food Innovation Policy Department, said Southeast Asian countries are highly interested in smart farming as this technology helps to solve problems related to climate change and other contemporary challenges that the world is facing.

Southeast Asian nations are also very interested in applying relevant technology to develop smart agriculture, he went on.

Accordingly, MAFRA will continue to develop policies aimed at supporting Korean businesses in exporting, expanding business networks, creating fresh momentum for businesses to expand their penetration, and boosting the export of smart farms to Southeast Asia.

The Vietnam-Korea Plus Partnership Week 2024 aims to promote co-operative activities between both countries in the fields of smart and environmentally friendly industry, clean energy, and smart agriculture with a view to providing a solid foundation to further joint economic ties in the future.