Export markets of many agricultural products are difficult
Table of Contents
The report of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said that the export turnover of agriculture, forestry and fishery in 11 months of 2019 was estimated at 37.3 billion USD, rising by 3.6% over the same period last year; in which, forestry export turnover reaches 10.24 billion USD, up 20.5%.
With this result, the export turnover of forest products has far surpassed the whole-year results of 2018 and soon reached the target compared to the target set from the beginning of the year of 11 billion USD.
Export of forest products accounts for billion 27.5% of the total export value of the agricultural sector. In particular, wood and wood products reached 9.64 billion USD, up 19.7%; Non-timber forest products reached 600 million USD, up 37% as compared to the same period period.
While forest product exports have witnessed a remarkable growth, becoming a bright spot of the entire agricultural industry in 2019, the main agricultural and aqua products products have decreased turnover over the same period. period.
Specifically, in the first 11 months of 2019, exports of major agricultural products are estimated at 17 billion USD, 5.2% lower than the same period period.
Along with the decline of agricultural products, seafood export turnover in 11 months was also estimated at US $ 7.9 billion, down 1.2% over the same period.
Ms. Ly Kim Chi, Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City Food Association (FFA), said China is still the largest export market of Vietnam's agricultural products, accounting for 26.9% of total export turnover; followed by the US with 21.9%; EU accounts for 11.7%; ASEAN accounts for 10.1%; Japan accounts for 8.8% and Korea accounts for 5.8%.
One of the main causes of the above decline is due to fluctuations in agricultural export markets in 2019, most clearly from the rice, vegetables and seafood products.
In particular, rice and vegetables are strongly influenced by the changes of the Chinese market – which is the leading export market of Vietnam.
Specifically, in the first 10 months of 2019, rice export turnover to China decreased by 66.7% over the same period; vegetables and fruits down 14.5% over the same period.
Dang Phuc Nguyen, General Secretary of the Vietnam Fruit and Vegetable Association, said that the reason for the decline is that China adjusted its trade policy in the direction of restricting small trade, requiring official export.
At the same time tightening regulations on quality and food safety and hygiene as well as other technical regulations such as labels, traceability, planting area codes.
Accordingly, all food exported to China must comply with regulations on management and supervision of labeling of packaged food packaging. Previously, from April 2019, China requested traceability information for imported fruits.
In addition, tightening the management of the list of imported food products, managing the list of establishments and enterprises eligible for export to China when having export certificates …
For aquatic products, the key export commodity of the agricultural sector, the turnover decreased mostly Because the two main items are shrimp and tra fish, both of which have declined in value compared to 2018.
According to the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), in the first 10 months of 2019, pangasius exports decreased by 9%; shrimp exports fell 6.4% over the same period period. Forecasting, shrimp exports for the whole year of 2019 will only reach about US $ 3.4 billion, down 4% compared to 2018.
The main reason is that shrimp exports to the EU market, the largest shrimp import market of Vietnam, grew positively only in July 2019, the remaining months saw negative growth.
In the first 10 months of this year, shrimp exports to the EU reached US $ 580.8 million, down nearly 20% over the same period period last year.
Constantly expanding market share, 2019 agricultural exports are expected to increase by 3.2%
In 2019, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development will continuously promote trade promotion, expand the geographical area for export of agricultural, forestry and aquatic products to international markets.
At the same time, many difficulties of a number of traditional markets on import and export of goods such as China, the United States, the EU … have been removed from difficulties and difficulties, especially, Vietnam has opened the market and redirected export. official export to China.
Specifically, in October 2019, Vietnam's first batch of milk was exported to this huge market.
Also in October 2019, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development successfully negotiated with the Hong Kong authorities (China) to export frozen pork, processed chicken and bird's nest.
Currently, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is proposing that the Chinese side accelerate the process of opening markets for Vietnamese fruits in the order of priority including durian, passion fruit, avocado, grapefruit, coconut, na, whip; and products of bird's nest, sweet potatoes, black jelly …
For the fishery sector, a total of 701 Vietnamese seafood enterprises are allowed to export to China.
In addition, the US has officially recognized Vietnam equivalent in food safety control with pangasius, opening up great prospects for businesses to continue exporting to the US. Along with that, China has approved the import of 48 species of live seafood and 128 types of semi-processed and processed aquatic products from Vietnam.
With the advantage of tropical fruits, many valuable fruits of Vietnam such as dragon fruit, mango, rambutan, litchi … have been exported to major markets such as the US, Australia, Japan and China. …
Accordingly, in 2019, our first mango batch was exported to the US and the first batch of Vietnamese longan appeared on the Australian market, attracting a large number of consumers …
As estimated by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, thanks to actively opening export markets, the total export turnover of agriculture, forestry and fishery products in 2019 is expected to reach 41.3 billion USD, up 3.2% compared to with 2018.
Trade surplus of the whole industry reached US $ 9.9 billion, higher than US $ 1.12 billion compared to 2018.
Continue to maintain 10 commodity groups with export turnover of more than US $ 1 billion, of which 5 items with over US $ 3 billion include wood and wood products; shrimp; Vegetables; the coffee; cashew.
Regarding the growth rate of the whole agriculture sector will also reach about 2.2%, of which aquatic products will increase by 6.12% and forestry will increase by 3.98%.
Solutions for the next transformation
It can be seen that if for a long time, we still default to fastidious markets like Europe, America, Japan, Australia …, and China is an easy market, then with a strong shift in policy. China's import and export activities in 2019 have justified the strict quality requirements of this market.
Therefore, according to experts, if Vietnam wants to continue promoting agricultural exports to this large and potential market, the quality must be measured in a specific and detailed manner through strict implementation of requirements. The demand of the partners on many factors such as labels, packaging, planting area codes, geographical indications, traceability.
This is not easy for many agricultural products of Vietnam, because for a long time, our production is mainly in quantity and mainly exported.
Therefore, fluctuations in the export market in 2019 as a warning bell, it is time to drastically change agricultural production towards safety and sustainability on the basis of VietGAP and GlobalGAP standards. , organic … or specific standards of each import market.
The Department of Agro-product Processing and Market Development (MARD) said that in order to seize the opportunity, Vietnam needs to accelerate registration of planting area codes and base packaging codes so that enterprises can export. more to the Chinese market, the need to improve the quality of agricultural products, especially food hygiene and safety to meet the strict standards of European markets and other fastidious markets.
At the same time, Vietnam's fruit and vegetable businesses need to focus on investing in technology and modern equipment in deep processing and production, while strengthening cooperation and connecting with partners in the supply chain to enhance export capacity.
The second is to continue efforts to expand export markets, especially fastidious markets, requiring high quality to avoid relying too much on some traditional markets; At the same time, it is also to increase the added value of Vietnamese agricultural products.
In fact, this market problem has a lot of different solutions through promoting exports to high quality markets.
However, the amount of agricultural products allowed to enter these demanding markets is still very small and it is always difficult to meet stable long-term orders.
In this regard, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development continues to lead and coordinate with other ministries and sectors to actively negotiate to open export markets, stabilize traditional markets, seek and expand. potential markets, minimize dependence on a given market.
The production lines meet the requirements of the importing country for traceability and geographical indications for exported agricultural, forestry and aquatic products.
At the same time, the Ministry continues to deal with market issues in order to create favorable conditions for seafood exports to: China, the US, South Korea, Australia, Brazil and monitor the situation of agricultural consumption at border gates, solving difficulties and problems in the market, stabilizing the supply of agriculture, forestry and fishery in the coming time …
