Positive with the target of USD 50 billion for exporting agricultural products

Taking advantage of opportunities from free trade agreements, diversifying markets, switching strongly to official export… are key solutions being deployed by the agricultural sector to realize the goal of exporting agricultural products. reach 50 billion USD in 2022.

Growth spurt, trade surplus of 3 billion USD

Information from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the export of agricultural, forestry and fishery products in the first quarter of 2022 is estimated at 12.8 billion USD, up 15.3% over the same period in 2021. Up to this point, the entire agricultural sector has a trade surplus. about 3 billion USD, 3.1 times higher than the same period last year. In which, the export of main agricultural products reached nearly 5.5 billion USD, up 12.8%; main forest products reached USD 4.3 billion, up 4.4%; seafood was estimated at 2.4 billion USD, up 38.7%; livestock production was estimated at 75.6 million USD, down 22.4%; export of agricultural materials reached about USD 603 million, up 72.5% (especially fertilizer, export value was about USD 291 million, up 2.8 times over the same period last year).

Notably, in the first quarter of 2022, many items achieved higher export value compared to the same period last year, such as rubber, tea, rice, pepper, cassava and products from cassava, pangasius, shrimp, and timber. and wood products. In particular, coffee has accelerated with a growth rate of over 50%, bringing in export value of about $1.2 billion. Along with that is the strong acceleration of key products such as: Pangasius increased by 82%, reaching 606 million USD; shrimp increased by nearly 40%, reaching 929 million USD; Pepper also increased sharply by nearly 41% and reached 252 million USD…

Many other commodities also had double-digit growth such as rubber, rice, cassava and cassava products. Regarding the export market, the United States is the largest market with nearly 3.5 billion USD (accounting for 27.1% market share). Next is China with a value of over 2.1 billion USD (accounting for 16.6%); Japan with a value of nearly 872 million USD (accounting for 6.8%); Korea ranked fourth with a value of about 562 million USD (accounting for 4.4%).

Optimistic about the growth momentum, Director of the Department of Agricultural Product Processing and Market Development (MARD) Nguyen Quoc Toan said that items such as rubber, fruits, vegetables, timber and forest products and aquatic products. … are forecast to have a large growth in exports.

For example, rubber products, in the period of 2022 – 2024, the world rubber may enter a quite strong price increase cycle because the supply is decreasing. Therefore, Vietnam’s rubber exports can continue to benefit in price, the total value of rubber exports in 2022 is forecast to exceed 3.6 billion USD.

Meanwhile, as noted by trade counselors in many countries, markets and consumers in Europe and America, Asian people are also gradually knowing and preferring Vietnam’s key agricultural products such as: : Coffee, fresh fruit. This shows that the export opportunities of Vietnam’s coffee and fresh fruit in 2022 are still very optimistic.

Facing many challenges

Although agricultural exports have enjoyed good growth since the beginning of the year, according to experts, this activity in the coming time will face many difficulties and challenges from difficult risk factors. measure of the Covid-19 epidemic, inflation and especially the situation of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Besides, the trend of the price of input materials such as fertilizer, animal feed has increased in the world; Sea freight rates have not shown any signs of cooling down, production costs are still high… are still challenges that the agricultural industry as well as agricultural product exporters will face in 2022.

Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Phung Duc Tien said that a notable problem is that exports to China are still facing difficulties due to the implementation of the “Zero Covid” policy and the application of new agricultural product control regulations. In fact, there are still shipments of Vietnamese enterprises that are warned about Covid-19. Therefore, businesses need to pay special attention to packaging, loading goods into containers… to ensure in epidemic control.

On the other hand, enterprises need to increase investment in deep processing and proactively source raw materials to reduce costs and improve the competitiveness of agricultural products in the export market.

Currently, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is coordinating with the Ministry of Industry and Trade to focus on removing difficulties in the consumption and export of agricultural products in key agricultural production localities and at major border gates with China; promptly provide information, market regulations, control import and export goods of Vietnam and China. For the technical issue of monitoring the quality of agricultural products, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has developed a plan to guide units and enterprises to implement the provisions of Orders 248 and 249 of the General Department of Customs of China.

In the first three months of the year, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has compiled 256 draft notices on SPS regulations (regulations on food safety and animal and plant quarantine) of member countries of the World Trade Organization. (WTO) may affect Vietnam’s agricultural exports; at the same time, send it to the relevant agencies to consider and comment, having handled 12 EU warnings about Vietnam’s agricultural products and foodstuffs.

Diversify the market

To achieve the goal of exporting agricultural products worth 50 billion USD in 2022, which is 50 billion USD, the agricultural industry is making efforts to implement many solutions. In the immediate future, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is preparing to organize a trade delegation to promote the supply chain of fruits and seafood in China in the second quarter of 2022. Along with that is preparing content for bilateral work with the UK, Germany, France, Spain, Korea; develop a scheme to promote the export of agricultural, forestry and fishery products to the EU, the United States, China and Japan.

Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan said that in order to promote the consumption of agricultural products in the coming time, the Ministry has planned to negotiate the export of chili, durian, milk and dairy products, fishmeal and fish oil. , feather products to China; label to Japan; grapefruit, lemon we go to New Zealand; pomelo to America and India; animal products to Korea; honey to EU…

Providing solutions on diversifying export markets, Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien said that through many digital trade promotion programs, the Ministry continues to support enterprises in general and agricultural export enterprises to promote economic growth. effectively exploit the free trade agreements (FTAs) signed with countries and territories, especially FTAs ​​with the Eurasian Economic Union; countries in the Asia-Pacific region.

Currently, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is coordinating with the Ministry of Industry and Trade in assessing and forecasting the situation in a timely and accurate manner; jointly find solutions to stabilize production and supply for the domestic market as well as export agricultural products. Especially focus on exchanging and negotiating with other countries to bring Vietnamese agricultural products into these markets.

In addition, the two ministries also stepped up support for businesses to exploit both traditional markets and access new markets. Along with that, promptly remove difficulties and bottlenecks in exporting agricultural products.