A Nationwide Beef Industry Training Program in The US for Vietnamese Farmers, Students, and Experts Connected by Noble Network

At 8:30am, September 24, 2021 US time, Noble Network held a meeting with its important partners who are contributing to the project “Establishing a nationwide beef industry training program and an associated beef products supply chain in Vietnam based on US technology and best practices”.

Members and partners attending the meeting include:

1. AFDEX: Mr. Chu Hong Trung – CEO

2. Vietnam Ministry of Finance: Ms. Huyen Tran (Department of International Cooperation)

3. Fifteen Mile Ranch Company LLC: Dr. Joanna D. Meston – Owner

4. Front Range Venture Connections Inc (FRVC): Mr. Loren T. Lancaster – President

5. Noble Network JSC: Ms. Nguyen Thi Ky Duyen –  Trade Development Manager; Ms. Vu Thi Trang Nhung – Trade Specialist

6. New Mexico State University (NMSU): Dr. Craig Gifford – Extension Beef Cattle Specialist; Dr. March Ward – Extension Livestock Specialist

 

After brief introductions, the meeting started with Mr. Trung, General Director of AFDEX, clearly stating the objectives, phases and related procedures of the project, including the following 6 items: Purpose, Method, Process, Scope, Fund Resources, Supporters.

The purpose of this project is to develop a training program which focuses on all segments of the beef supply chain from raising, processing, marketing to delivering beef products to the end-use customers in Vietnam.

The methods proposed by Mr. Trung include:

• Vietnamese farmers, students, and experts will be assigned to go to the U.S. to learn advanced beef supply chain knowledge and technology. After being trained in the U.S., they will return to their home country to contribute to the development and sustainability of the US-quality beef supply chain of Vietnam.
• The U.S. experts, farmers will come to Vietnam to teach and supervise other members of the program

The process of providing initial education and selecting Vietnamese students / farmers / experts who will participate in training programs in Vietnam will last from 5 to 6 months before participating in a training course of about 2 years in the United States. The first phase participation is expected to include 50 to 100 students/farmers.

Although each of the participants have independently been working in areas that could immediately support the project, initial funding for the formal project will preferably be based on a grant provided by the U.S. government with additional grant funding from the Vietnamese government. Mr. Trung emphasized that to receive support from the Vietnamese government and the US government, the project must proceed entirely legally and with full transparency at every stage of the program. Regarding the Vietnam Youth Union, AFDEX is coordinating closely with the members of the Vietnam National Youth Union. Support by Vietnam Members of the Youth Union will play an important role in this program.

In the next part of the meeting, Dr. Gifford shared about the value that NMSU will bring to the program:

NMSU’s extension service was created in the early 1900s in the US to take science-based information (technology, production practices) to ranches and farms – to maximize efficiency and sustainability. Therefore, NMSU conducts numerous education programs to train farmers and ranchers on production practices such as forage product, beef production, ranch management and natural resource cultivation, etc. In addition, they also have a “Raising ranchers program” to educate young and inexperienced farmers starting from scratch which covers every segment of beef production up until the harvest stage (animal welfare, animal handling, and animal feeding, etc…). Online programs and hands-on exercises are being developed that can be a reasonable starting point for the Vietnam project.

NMSU also has a Restaurant and Tourism Department in New Mexico State which partners with New Mexico Beef Council. They offer courses and training for chefs, restaurants, and even home cooks on how to cut or season beef professionally.

Facility and faculty resources:

• Grant side: NMSU is able to utilize their grant office to help manage a grant prior to and after awarding.
• Production side: They just received general obligation bonds which enabled them to get new agricultural facilities. They are getting a new meat lab that will be USDA inspected and a meat processing lab on campus. They currently have in existence the Corona Range and Livestock Research Unit which is a wholly functional ranch. Research programs, as well as graduate student studies, are a major part of the research centers activities and are incorporated into the normal production cycle of the cattle production.

At the end of the meeting, Mr. Loren – Director of Noble Network and President of FRVC – summarized the meeting and gave some ideas for next steps for the partners to work together to compile documents related to the project. Dr. Gifford is assisting in the discovery and referral of NMSU grant funding resources to this program.