Supporting and food processing enterprises are facing a host of difficulties in applying energy efficiency solutions due to limited financial and technical capacity in auditing energy consumption, a meeting on August 18 heard.

The meeting was held to launch the “Promotion of energy efficiency in supporting and food processing industries in Vietnam” project implemented by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) under the auspices of the Southeast Asia Energy Transition Partnership (ETP) and partners.

According to the project’s inception report, enterprises in industrial production, including food processing and supporting manufacturers, are Vietnam’s key energy users, accounting for more than 47 per cent of total national energy consumption.

As of 2020, Vietnam had over 7,500 industrial-scale farm produce processing businesses associated with export, with a total capacity of about 120 million tons of raw materials annually.

Vietnam currently has about 5,000 enterprises in its supporting industry but only some 300 enterprises are involved in multinational supply chains and employ some 600,000 workers.

“Given recent changes in global value chains, Vietnam’s supporting industry has significant growth potential if the country adopts consistent, timely, and appropriate policies,” the report stated.

By 2030, supporting industry goods are expected to meet 70 per cent of demand and account for about 14 per cent of industrial production value.

However, it has been reported that the overall issue facing businesses in these two sectors in implementing energy efficiency is their small scale and modest production capacity, as well as limited awareness about resources and technologies.

VCCI Vice President Bui Trung Nghia said businesses in the food processing and supporting industries are seeing rapid industrialization and hold great potential in energy savings and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

“But their application of energy efficiency solutions remains challenging due to a lack of information on energy efficiency, sustainability, and green production,” he said.

Manufacturers tend to ignore energy efficiency solutions, he went on, because of limited financial and technical capacity in auditing energy consumption and also project development capacity to approach suitable investment resources.