Agricultural processing will be strongly promoted by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in the coming time to turn our country into a global agricultural product processing and logistics center by 2030.
Processing cashew exports.
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Great contribution to agricultural and rural development
According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, in the period 2013–2018, the agricultural product processing industry in the whole country had a strong development on both the scale and modern level compared to the previous 5 years (2007 – 2012), with a rapid Annual value added growth is about 5-7%. As a result, agricultural export turnover increased sharply, an average increase of about 8-10% / year. In 2019, it reached a record level of 41.3 billion USD.
With the development of agricultural product processing over the years, our country has formed an agricultural processing industry system with increasing quantity and quality. The system of agricultural product processing and processing industry currently has over 7,500 industrial-scale establishments associated with exports and tens of thousands of small, retail and household agricultural processing establishments.
Over the past 10 years, our country's agricultural mechanization and agro-processing industry have made significant progress. The growth rate of added value of agricultural product processing industry is about 5-7% / year. The agricultural processing industry system has been established and developed with designed capacity to ensure processing of about 120 million tons of agricultural materials / year. As a result, it has improved the productivity and added value of agricultural products, creating an important premise for building a modern agriculture, applying high technology, significantly contributing to the overall growth of the whole industry. .
Some industries or products currently have relatively modern technology and processing equipment of regional and international level, such as cashew nut processing, coffee processing, rice processing, shrimp and tra catfish processing. .
It can be said that the development of agricultural processing industry has contributed to a dramatic change in the structure of agricultural production, from subsistence and self-sufficient agriculture to diversified agriculture towards the present direction. to produce and produce large goods to supply raw materials for processing, serving export and domestic consumption.
Agricultural product processing industry has contributed to economic development in rural areas and new rural construction. Factories processing agricultural, forestry and fishery products, mostly built in rural areas, remote areas, have contributed positively to the improvement of rural socio-economic picture. Specifically: Establishing towns and townships in the area of construction of processing plants; create jobs directly for about 1.6 million workers, mostly children of farmers, with an average income of 5-7 million VND / month; Important contribution to poverty reduction in rural areas.
Many industries in the field of processing agricultural products have been well integrated with the world economy. Vietnam's agricultural products have been exported to over 180 countries and territories, including demanding markets such as the EU, US and Japan.
New at the average level of the world
Despite continuous development over the years, the technology level of agricultural processing in our country is currently at the average level of the world. Processing technology level is generally at the average level of the world; Many processing facilities of many industries are over 15 years old (accounting for over 70%) with old equipment, outdated technology and low productivity (tea, rubber, cassava); equipment innovation coefficient is only 7% / year (equal to 1/2 – 1/3 of the minimum of other countries).
Most businesses have not been proactive in supplying raw materials with guaranteed quantity and quality for processing. The linkage between the stages in the value chain of production – processing – consumption of goods is largely incoherent (except for some industries that have well organized the processing stage associated with the production of raw materials such as sugar cane, Pangasius and shrimp).
Processing capacity for some industries is still weak, not yet fully utilized processing capacity, not meeting the demand, especially at the peak of the season such as vegetables and meat (the quantity put into processing only accounting for 5-10% of production); sugarcane, rice, coffee, pepper, cashew, cassava and aquatic products (causing post-harvest losses).
The post-harvest losses are still large (10-20%) due to the lack of facilities to meet requirements (vegetables, fruits, cassava meet 20-30%; coffee, pepper, cashew, tea 10-15) %; fisheries for 15-20%; rice 5-7%).
Pangasius processing. Image: Le Hoang Vu.
The main processed products are still low value-added (VAT), accounting for 70-85%. Processing products with high added value only account for about 15-30% (aquatic products about 30%; other agricultural products about 10-20%; small packaging products for retail use only about 10%).
The policy mechanism is not attractive enough to invest in processing agricultural products. Some policies such as land, finance, credit, science and technology … have not kept up with the actual requirements of production and business. Resources for implementing issued policies are limited, so the effectiveness of policies is not high.
Management and professional skills for the processing industry are still low, the number of trained people accounts for a very low rate. Up to 55.63% of business owners have education from intermediate level or lower. Up to 75% of the labor force in small and medium-sized enterprises has not yet received technical or professional training.
Target to Top 10 of agricultural product processing countries
With the importance of agricultural processing, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has set a goal that by 2030, Vietnam's agricultural processing industry is ranked among the top 10 countries in the world, a center for deep processing and agricultural logistics. global production.
By 2030, Vietnam's agricultural product processing industry is capable of processing to meet the requirements of agricultural production; processing technology and general preservation technologies reach the average or higher level; in which key agricultural products will reach advanced and modern levels; processed products meet well the requirements of the consumer market, have high competitiveness, quality assurance and food safety; contributing to raising the value added and export turnover of Vietnamese agricultural products.
Specifically: The growth rate of value of deeply processed agricultural products reaches 7-8% / year; the proportion of output of deeply processed and high value-added products of all branches reaches 30% or higher; over 50% of processing establishments of key export agricultural products will reach the level of advanced production technology; building and successfully developing a number of large and modern groups and enterprises processing agricultural products and high international competitiveness.
In order to achieve the aforementioned goals, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has proposed major groups of solutions to promote the development of agricultural product processing industry.
Firstly, to accelerate the restructuring of the agricultural sector along the direction of organizing large commodity production in association with regional advantages and market demands. Besides, there are solutions such as organizing the production of raw materials, developing clusters of production – processing and consumption of agricultural products. Promote investment in the industry of manufacturing machinery and equipment for agriculture, processing agricultural products, and restructuring products.
Strengthen the application, transfer of science and technology into processing, preserving agricultural products and mechanizing agriculture. Improve product quality and ensure food safety; apply the world's advanced quality management systems such as HACCP, ISO 22000 … in all agricultural processing facilities to ensure food quality and safety; formulating and applying the system of national technical regulations, national standards, traceability to agricultural products.
Promote international economic integration, market development. Training to improve the quality of human resources. Studying and implementing human resource development mechanisms and policies for agricultural product processing industry and agricultural mechanization. Continue to renovate and perfect policies and mechanisms.
Thanh Son
Source: Vietnam Agriculture Newspaper
