16. October 2019

BioTrade SECO Project organized coaching session for its BSO partner

On the 8th and 9th of October 2019, the Regional Biotrade Project in South East Asia organized a coaching session for representatives of the Vietnam Organic Agriculture Association (VOAA) – a Business Support Organization (BSO) The activity is part of the Project’s capactiy building mission for partners and was facilitated by Ms. Jolanda van Hal, a market access expert from Profound, a Dutch-based consultancy company.                  

During the two-day session, the expert supported VOAA in reviewing their existing market access services in order to identify room for development and provided guidelines to assist VOAA with the preparation to participate in BioFach 2020 in Germany.

On the afternoon of the second day, with the coordination of the expert and the Project, a working session between VOAA representatives and partner companies of the BioTrade SECO project was organized. At the working session, VOAA representatives presented their strategic directions in developing market access services and updated companies on the preparation for BioFach. In response, the participating companies (Vinasamex, Visimex, Hiệp Thành, DACE, Hagimex, TH Herbal) provided feedback to VOAA based on their needs for market access services, and shared the lessons learned from previous trade show participation for better planning of the BioFach 2020.

This activity is an effort to create a dialogue mechanism that promotes sustainable cooperation between VOAA as a BSO and companies that are their key clients. Developing BSO capacity is also a Project intervention to improve BioTrade companies market linkages to high value markets in the long run.