Viettel Digital launched Freso, an agricultural e-commerce platform, on 5/1. Designed for business-to-business (B2B) transactions, Freso directly connects suppliers from farms and cooperatives with restaurants, eateries, and coffee shops (F&B). The platform features over 100 suppliers and offers a catalog of over 10,000 items, ensuring standardized, transparent transaction processes and fully meeting VAT invoice requirements for all transactions.

Freso is primarily deployed in Hanoi and TP HCM, strategic locations that account for two-thirds of the over 323,000 F&B establishments operating nationwide (as of late 2024, according to iPOS and Nestle Professional data). This targeted deployment allows the platform to access areas with large transaction volumes and helps businesses adopt transparent, data-driven agricultural transaction methods, which facilitates management.

Features on Freso. Photo: Viettel Digital

By centralizing the supply-demand connection process, Freso reduces fragmented transactions and reliance on numerous intermediaries. Supplier, product, and document information is managed uniformly, enhancing transparency and reducing transaction risks. This model also establishes transaction standards that align with the value chain-based development of the agricultural economy.

Freso's launch aligns with Vietnam's national strategy to shift from an "agricultural production" mindset to "agricultural economy" development. Key policies, including the Sustainable Agricultural and Rural Development Strategy for the 2021-2030 period (with a vision to 2050), Decision 150/QD-TTg, Decision 56/QD-BTTTT, and Resolution 19-NQ/TW, all emphasize organizing production and business along value chains. A core focus is modernizing trade channels, bringing agricultural products onto digital platforms, increasing traceability, and standardizing transaction documents.

In practice, consumption units such as restaurants, eateries, and coffee shops are facing increasing pressure regarding invoice, document, and transaction data management. Notably, Decree 70/2025/ND-CP mandates that, starting from 1/6/2025, applicable food and beverage service businesses must use electronic invoices generated from point-of-sale (POS) systems directly connected to tax authorities. Freso addresses this by enabling transparent, data-driven, and easily traceable input and output transactions, reducing risks and ensuring stable operations.

A representative added that, in conjunction with the agricultural economy's growth and national digital transformation, the new e-commerce platform aims to contribute to building a robust data foundation and standardized transaction processes. This initiative creates a premise for Vietnamese agricultural products to enhance their value and better meet market demands.

Viettel Digital, a unit under the Military Industry and Telecommunications Group (Viettel), specializes in the fintech sector. The corporation has previously deployed large-scale digital financial platforms, including: Viettel Money, serving 30 million individual users, and VT Finance, designed for businesses within the supply chain.

Hoang Dan