WEAVE project meets Australian Agriculture Minister

“I want to thank the WEAVE project for the great work that they are doing in the pork, banana and cinnamon value chains in Lao Cai and Bac Kan provinces, especially for empowering women to build their resilience,” says Mr. Littleproud, the Australian Minister of Agriculture when visiting the Aus4Equality information booth at the 25th anniversary of the agricultural research partnership between Australia and Vietnam on April 11th in Hanoi. Mr. Littleproud had the opportunity to learn more about the WEAVE project and to taste some banana chips produced by ethnic minority women supported under the project.

The event was organised by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) and attracted visitors from NGOs, research centres and the government, including the Australian Ambassador to Vietnam, H.E. Mr. Craig Chittick and the Vice Minister of the Vietnam Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), Le Quoc Doanh.

The Women’s Economic Empowerment through Agricultural Value Chain Enhancement (WEAVE) joined 18 other booths from different (research) projects, which turned the area into a vibrant marketplace, where visitors interacted with representatives of the projects and enjoyed cooking demonstrations and tasting sessions of a great variety of agricultural products.

The event was a great platform to network and display cinnamon, banana and pork products produced by ethnic minority women under the WEAVE project. WEAVE also disseminated business cards of local producers and cooperatives in the three value chains to connect them to research institutes and potential buyers at the event.