Vietnamese agricultural products give priority to exploit markets with FTAs

Regarding agricultural, forestry and fishery exports in 2021, Mr. Nguyen Quoc Toan, Director of Department of Agricultural Product Processing and Market Development, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, said one of the key solutions to reach US$44 billion in exports is that it is necessary to promote the exploitation of the market group in the signed Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) along with traditional markets.

Vietnam's agricultural, forestry and fishery exports have had a relatively favorable start this year. What do you think about the prospects for the whole sector in 2021?

On the basis of the impressive achievements of 2020, in the early days of 2021, the agricultural sector continued to witness the export of rice and shrimp at high prices. In particular, the rice shipment of Trung An Hi-tech Agriculture Joint Stock Company exported to Singapore has a price of up to US$705 per ton.

From this positive signal, I hope that in 2021, the food products group will continue to promote their growth momentum. Currently, the demand for rice imports is still high. Notably, some countries that have just signed an FTA with Vietnam have also committed to opening their market for rice products. With many other key export agricultural products such as coffee and pepper, in 2021 the opportunity is also very bright thanks to companies who are both reputable manufacturers with deeply processed products and traders, like Phuc Sinh Group.

With wood products, it is predicted that export will still grow due to high market demand. For seafood products, although the growth rate in 2020 is not as expected, but hopefully in 2021, seafood exports will still reach US$9 billion. We have learned many lessons from experience, accelerated processing, for example pangasius products have added many items of great added value.

In general, taking advantage of opportunities, diversifying markets, promoting digital transformation and digital trade, surely agricultural exports will continue to gain many positive results in 2021.

Besides the opportunity and favorable factors, can you tell us more about the challenges of Vietnamese agricultural, forestry and fishery exports?

Vietnam is deeply integrated with the world economy with a proactive position, in which agriculture is a rapidly integrating. Joining FTAs and diversifying markets are the driving force for domestic production.

Of course, in integration, opportunities always come with challenges. In 2021 in the implementation roadmap of FTAs, although tax barriers are removed, new technical barriers will be erected. Farmers and businesses need to get acquainted with them to standardize products.

The agricultural sector has been restructuring, focusing on promoting the construction of value chains with a position that is not subjective by the multiple variants of the virus that causes Covid-19. This will be a strong influence on economic development, especially the supply chain. Countries themselves will also have changes in behavior, increasing investment in food production, if there is a space to reduce import dependence, ensuring food security.

In addition, Vietnamese agricultural products continue to compete with potential agricultural exporting countries such as Thailand, India and China. In addition, it must be added that the trade policies of major countries such as the US will definitely make adjustments, need to actively adapt; along with that, natural disasters and climate change are the factors that can greatly affect production and business.

In order to achieve the target of US$44 billion as expected by the Prime Minister, which solutions should be prioritized?

I think it is necessary to determine the implementation of business production goals. Specifically, from the first quarter of 2021, the supply chain was not broken due to the impact of Covid-19, overcoming difficulties in logistics.

At the same time, in my opinion, we must heed the warnings of countries for associations and enterprises to be proactive in adapting; diversify forms of market development, deploy digital economy applications in agriculture, remove barriers and technical requirements online.

In 2021, for cultivated products, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development will focus on negotiating so that fruits like durian, pomelo, passion fruit and sweet potato are exported to China through official channels; livestock products continue to expand the list of dairy processing factories to be exported to China, completing the last stages to export swallow nests to China.

Notably from the market perspective, in addition to traditional markets, it is necessary to exploit the market group in the signed FTAs because of the large and diversified market capacity. In particular, this year, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has a policy of making use of the Halal market (the community of Muslims in the world), with about 2.2 billion people, focusing on advantageous products such as tea, coffee, pepper, seafood and rice.

Thank you Sir!

Source: Customs News