This is the sharing of Ms. Le Viet Nga - Deputy Director of the Domestic Market Department (Ministry of Industry and Trade) at the Forum "Developing cooperative economic models, promoting sustainable agricultural development" organized by Business Magazine on the morning of November 24.
Green transition is seen as inevitable and vital.
According to Ms. Le Viet Nga, green production, green export, green consumption… have become a global development trend as a positive solution to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, improve resilience and creativity of the economy. This trend is forming new standards on environment and sustainable development as regulated by import markets and importers.
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| Ms. Le Viet Nga - Deputy Director of Domestic Market Department (Ministry of Industry and Trade) shared at the Forum |
In Vietnam's main export markets such as the United States, Europe, China, Japan, Korea, etc., consumers are increasingly concerned with environmental protection in addition to product quality and price.
In these developed countries, green development programs have been implemented and the legal framework for importing goods from other countries must ensure green production.
“A typical example is the European market (EU) - a region known as a potential but very demanding market, with a strong tendency to shift towards green and clean consumption, requiring compliance with requirements on animal and plant quarantine, rules on traceability, environmental protection standards, food hygiene and safety standards, and packaging and transportation processes,” Ms. Le Viet Nga shared.
Ms. Le Viet Nga cited the extremely strict requirements of the European market (EU) that have just been updated and widely disseminated to the business community in Vietnam, such as Directive 79/117/EEC of the European Commission (EC), the amount of pesticide residue allowed to remain on products imported into the EU is very low, almost zero.
If the EU detects any prohibited substances remaining in the imported product sample, the shipment will be rejected and destroyed, the supplier (exporter) will have to bear all the destruction costs, and may even be prosecuted and subject to an export ban on that product to the EU while waiting for the competent EU authority to conduct an investigation and handle the case.
A new policy also mentioned by Ms. Le Viet Nga is the EUDR (Economic Deforestation Reduction Regulation) adopted by the EC on May 16, 2023. Accordingly, it prohibits the import of agricultural products that are produced on land originating from deforestation and forest degradation, including products raised or produced with such products such as leather, chocolate, printing paper, furniture, charcoal and some palm oil derivatives.
Requiring exporters to comply with the European Green Deal legislation, the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) forces importers into the EU to report the carbon emissions of their goods.
The Supply Chain Audit Law requires companies to strictly manage environmental impacts in both production and business. These are major challenges to enjoy incentives from the EVFTA Free Trade Agreement in addition to basic conditions such as rules of origin and quality standards.
In addition to the standards set by the State, European distribution systems (wholesale, retail) also set their own purchasing policies or standards to prioritize the distribution of environmentally friendly products.
Ms. Le Viet Nga commented that with an export-oriented economy like Vietnam, the green transformation of enterprises is considered inevitable and vital. It can be seen that sustainable agricultural development is no longer an incentive, but has become a mandatory requirement of many export markets.
"Therefore, if Vietnam wants to take advantage of opportunities from free trade agreements to increase agricultural exports to demanding markets such as the EU, it cannot ignore solutions to promote sustainable agricultural development," Ms. Nga added.
Need comprehensive solutions
Not only in the export market, for the domestic market, Ms. Le Viet Nga said, in the past 15 years, the trend of consuming green, environmentally friendly products that protect consumers' health has increasingly received attention from society.
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According to a 2023 NielsenIQ survey, over time, consumers increasingly value sustainability and environmental friendliness when shopping, with 55% of respondents considering this factor very important and 37% considering it important.
Faced with the above situation, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has piloted models, goods distributed in modern systems are always coordinated by enterprises with suppliers, including cooperative alliances, cooperatives, and farmer households, making efforts to control to ensure meeting the criteria on documents, production and cultivation processes, especially agricultural products are inspected for food safety to ensure quality before reaching consumers.
Along with the development of supermarket chains and modern channels, traditional markets have also gradually changed and upgraded to suit the development trend. In recent times, 63/63 provinces and cities have built and expanded pilot models of food trading markets.
To date, there have been nearly 200 pilot market models nationwide that ensure food safety. The food safety market criteria have been approved by the Prime Minister as one of the criteria for recognition of advanced new rural communes under the National Target Program on New Rural Areas for the 2021-2025 period.
To develop sustainable agricultural products in Vietnam, the Ministry of Industry and Trade said it is developing and connecting the agricultural wholesale market system into logistics hubs, comprehensive services and input supply for agricultural production; Improving the capacity of organizations and individuals in tracing the origin and labeling the origin of food products; Strengthening e-commerce activities, promoting and connecting the food consumption market according to the value chain with e-commerce channels, social networks...
However, the representative of the Domestic Market Department also said that comprehensive solutions are needed to improve the legal system and mechanisms to promote sustainable development, including sustainable agricultural development; implement energy management, reduce greenhouse gases, manage food safety standards by applying production models according to standardized green standards; promote the formation of value chains, sustainable product value chains, from production to purchasing - processing - preservation - consumption according to standards set by the market.
"In particular, it is necessary to emphasize the important role of the Vietnam Cooperative Alliance and cooperatives contributing to the goal of building a green economy and a prosperous Vietnam," Ms. Le Viet Nga emphasized.
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