Agriculture remains the mainstay of the economy

In the context of most key export industries such as textiles, seafood, wood, etc. all declining sharply, agricultural and fruit exports have become a bright spot for the economy. More importantly, after the Covid-19 pandemic and the current drought, agriculture continues to affirm its position as a pillar of the economy.

Vegetables and fruits shine, many items break records

If in 2022, the seafood industry broke through with an almost vertical growth chart, then by 2023, rice and vegetables will become representatives of Vietnamese agricultural products, creating a reputation in the international market.

The fruit and vegetable industry is making rapid strides to set a new record for export turnover. According to estimates from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, by the end of 2023, the two items of fruit and vegetables and rice will reach their highest export turnover ever, over 4 billion USD. Of which, for the first time, durian has risen to the top position among fruit trees with an export turnover reaching 2 billion USD. Speaking of the extraordinary growth of durian, it is impossible not to mention the signing of the Official Export Protocol to China from the second quarter of 2022. Since then, durian has brought "huge" income to growers and contributed to the overall growth of the fruit and vegetable export industry.

Not only exporting fresh fruit and not only depending on the Chinese market, domestic enterprises are also expanding the durian export market to 24 countries and territories. "Durian still has a lot of room for growth. In addition to the Chinese market, which accounts for 90% of durian export output, other markets also have potential to be exploited, especially frozen durian products and especially targeting the Indian market, which has the largest population in the world," said Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu Huong, Deputy Director of the Plant Protection Department (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development).

In addition, the fruit and vegetable industry still has many other potential "stars" that promise to shine in the near future, including coconuts. Recently, this product has received the signal to open its doors to the two largest consumer markets, the US and China. Mr. Cao Ba Dang Khoa, acting Secretary General of the Vietnam Coconut Association, informed: "The export turnover of deeply processed coconut products and raw materials such as coconut milk powder, desiccated coconut, etc. of Vietnam has continuously increased in recent years, reaching the fourth position in Asia.

Statistics show that the export value of coconut and coconut products in 2022 will reach over 900 million USD. Currently, due to the impact of the general situation, the export value of coconut has decreased by about 32% compared to the same period in 2022, reaching about 215 million USD. However, in the long term, the export potential of the coconut industry is still very large. With the preparations to open the Chinese market and the reopening of the US market, Vietnamese coconuts will soon reach a turnover of 1 billion USD.

Vegetables, rice break export turnover record but still lack of connection

In addition, domestic coffee production is also strongly reviving. After many years of being below 40,000 VND/kg, coffee prices have suddenly skyrocketed since the beginning of 2023, and have now nearly reached 70,000 VND/kg. "For many years, Vietnamese coffee prices have not exceeded 50,000 VND/kg, so the current price is almost a dream for businesses and farmers. The new coffee crop begins to be harvested in October and November every year, so prices may decrease slightly but are likely to remain high," said a representative of a coffee exporting enterprise in Dak Lak. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development also predicted that coffee could break the record for export turnover of the previous year and 2023 will be the second consecutive year that Vietnam achieves a turnover of over 4 billion USD in coffee exports.

Reorganizing the "industry landscape", optimizing national advantages

In the context of domestic and global economic difficulties, agriculture has emerged as a pillar for the economy. Looking back at the export of agricultural products over the past year, Mr. Nguyen Quoc Toan, Director of the Center for Digital Transformation and Agricultural Statistics (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development), commented: "It can be said that the agricultural sector is proud of its achievements. Climate change, epidemics and crises have negatively impacted global economic activities. However, Vietnam's agricultural exports have emerged as a bright spot for the entire national economy. The success in exporting agricultural products must be attributed to a huge shift in production, followed by the expansion of new markets and especially the exploitation of new-generation trade agreements."

On the other hand, according to Mr. Nguyen Quoc Toan, when some industries such as rice and durian have grown rapidly, it has also exposed all the weaknesses of the current agricultural sector, which is the lack of connection. Specifically, the current bottlenecks are quality management, inadequate processing infrastructure, poor connection between gardeners, farmers, traders and businesses, leading to competition in purchasing, broken contracts, etc.

Dr. Dang Kim Son, former Director of the Institute of Policy and Strategy for Agricultural and Rural Development (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development), also worried: "In Vietnam, although the State, enterprises and people have spent a lot of effort to link the four parties, build large-scale fields, build value chains... but in the production of industries in general and rice in particular, the stages are still separate. Production is left to farmers, purchasing from farmers is left to traders and enterprises with processing factories. Many export enterprises only sign contracts to sell rice and mobilize from milling factories in the "ship-side" style.

The situation of signing export contracts with foreign countries first, then buying rice according to domestic prices will cause conflicts when price fluctuations occur, and the relationship will instead of being cooperative, it will become confrontational. If the current weak organization continues, it will create opportunities for transnational FDI corporations to enter and dominate strategic agricultural product sectors in which Vietnam has advantages. At that time, domestic enterprises and especially farmers will only enjoy small profits as labor contributors, along with all the risks of disease, natural disasters and environmental pollution... In fact, Vietnam has been accepting this situation in many industries and agriculture is currently being pushed back in livestock farming, encroaching on seafood, coffee...".

According to Dr. Dang Kim Son, to gain a foothold at home and promote the national advantages of the agricultural sector, local and industry leaders need to rearrange the situation of each industry and establish the position of farmers in general and rice farmers in particular. It is necessary to determine where rice is in specialized areas such as the Mekong Delta, where fruit trees are, where aquatic products are. In the Central Highlands, it is necessary to know where coffee is, where pepper is, where fruit trees are, where forests are, etc. Only then can we invest synchronously in infrastructure, logistics, processing plants, and human resources. In specialized areas, it is necessary to identify and support large enterprises to lead small enterprises, cooperatives, and farmers.

Once there is horizontal linkage between farmers, businesses, and localities, then vertical linkage will be built and organized. That vertical linkage solves the problems of how to build specialized zones, how to organize production, how to find markets, how to price, process, and cooperate internationally... Together forming specialized zones is vertical linkage, the value chain is vertical linkage, and the highest is the industry council.

Linking with farmers is a win.

Mr. Le Duc Thinh, Director of the Department of Economic Cooperation and Rural Development (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development), analyzed: The biggest weakness of the agricultural sector today is the lack of connection. Whether slow or fast, modern agriculture cannot be self-competitive agriculture but must be organized according to the supply chain and value chain.

"Of course we are going slowly, but if we don't start today, it will be very difficult for us to do it in the near future. Previously, we had a decree that we had to link up and in the link there were also some penalties, but that decree still had some limitations, especially in the story of organization and implementation... In the chain of links, the trap we always encounter is that it is heavy on price. The problem is that the price factor is very difficult to manage, including businesses. How can farmers and cooperatives come together? There is nothing better than all supporting the welfare and benefits of farmers. We need to focus on helping farmers produce high-quality agricultural products, we help farmers reduce product costs, we help farmers have enough knowledge about the market to have enough coping skills, help farmers access credit...", Mr. Thinh emphasized and said that the current link between buyers and sellers only stops at signing a sales contract, but this is not enough.

If we talk about competition, Vietnamese enterprises lose to multinational enterprises in everything, in terms of potential, in terms of market, but we have an advantage: if we can connect with farmers, we will win. So, whether it is slow or fast, we must do it, do it persistently so that the production - consumption link becomes deeper and wider. Only then can we overcome the current weaknesses of Vietnam's agricultural sector and raise the position of Vietnamese agricultural products higher and higher.

Chairman of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) Pham Tan Cong said that in the current context, to achieve the goals of the agricultural sector in the coming period of "Developing smart agriculture, international integration, adapting to climate change, increasing added value and sustainable development; prosperous and civilized new countryside, wealthy farmers" requires more participation and demonstration of the role of enterprises. Enterprises will be the ones to pave the way for the Vietnamese agricultural sector to gradually advance, affirm its position in the world and from here, bring production efficiency and increase income for farmers.

"Recently, the Government has issued many policies to attract businesses to invest in agriculture. These policies show that the State is very interested in encouraging businesses to invest in agricultural and rural development. However, investing in agriculture always contains many unpredictable risks, so to put the policy into practice, the Government and localities need to pay special attention to removing difficulties, creating favorable conditions for agricultural businesses, and building models and successful businesses in investing in agriculture to replicate and encourage, creating confidence for potential investors," Mr. Cong emphasized.

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