In early 2021, Vietnam's agricultural, forestry and fishery exports had a relatively smooth start with strong growth numbers. Promoting the application of digital technology in agriculture in both production and market stages, removing barriers in key export markets is an important solution to help Vietnamese agricultural products reach theexport goal of US $44 billion this year.

The export of agricultural, forestry and fishery products is expected
to achieve positive results this year. Photo: N.Thanh

Series of goods accelerating

According to the Department of Agro-Processing and Market Development (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development), in the first month of 2021, the export value of agriculture, forestry and fishery is estimated at US$3.49 billion, up 27.1% over the same period in 2020. Ofwhich, the export value of main agricultural products is estimated at US$1.6 billion, up 28.9%; livestock export value is up 3%; seafood export value was estimated at US$600 million, up 19.6%; the export value of major forest products was estimated at US$1.33 billion, up 47.8%.

Looking at some specific agricultural export products, it is easy to see that the growth is quite impressive, led by rubber. It was estimated that the volume of rubber exports in January 2021 reached 200,000 tons with a value of US$321 million, up 2.2 times in volume and 2.4 times in value over the same period in 2020. It is forecasted, in 2021, it is likely that China will reduce rubber imports due to the huge reserve of domestic goods. Meanwhile, Vietnam's rubber exports to the Indian market are expected to seea more positive growth this year.

Talking about impressive export growth in the first month of the year, we must mentioncassava. Representatives of the Department of Agricultural Product Processing and Market Development saidthe volume of exports of cassava and cassava products in January 2021 was estimated at 400,000 tons with a value of US$144 million, up 88.1% in volume and 97.1% in value over the same period last year. It is forecasted that exports of cassava and cassava products to China will maintain a good growth rate backed by high demand and limited supply.

Anotherexported agricultural product reaping much success in 2020 was rice. Currently, the main rice export markets of Vietnam such as the Philippines, Africa continue to sign contracts to buy rice from Vietnam and rice prices are at very highlevels. Although rice exports in January 2021 decreased in both volume and value over the same period last year, for the whole of2021, the rice exports still havemany positive signals.

Accelerating digitization in agriculture

At the conference to summarize the year 2020 and deploying the 2021 plan of the Agriculture and Rural Development sector, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc expects the entire industry's export in 2021 to reach US$44 billion. This figure is nearly US$2 billion higher than the target of over US$42 billion that the whole industry set out earlier for 2021.

Talking about the target set by the Prime Minister, Standing Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Ha Cong Tuan, said: "The production capacity of the whole agricultural sector is not afraid of the target of exporting US$44 billion in 2021. With high determination and without sudden problems in the international market, US$44 billion is feasible.”

In the context of climate change, and especially the Covid-19 pandemic is still complicated, accelerating digital transformation in agriculture in both production and trade isconsidered animportant solution to help Vietnamese agricultural products remove difficulties and penetrate deeper into the international market this year as well as in the future.

From a business perspective, Mr. Than Van Hung, Chairman of the Board of Directors of VISIMEX Group Joint Stock Company (a company specializing in manufacturing, processing and exporting agricultural products), said that enterprises determine thatapplying digital technology in production,business, promoting the development of a closed supply chain will be the secret to help businesses overcome the "bottlenecks" of the market due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“As early as 2005, I signed up as a member of Alibaba. By introducing products on this famous e-commerce exchange, we were able to find orders from all over the world and gradually improved our production structure. Sometimes, orders through Alibaba accounted for 80% of the company's annual revenue, with customers from all over the world such as India, Indonesia, China, South Africa, the Middle East. Currently, VISIMEX is continuing to promote transactions on e-commerce trading floors, online exchanges with customers, so the Covid-19 pandemic has a negligible impact on the operation of enterprises," Mr. Than Van Hung said.

Regarding the rice industry, Mr. Nguyen TrungKien, Vice President and General Secretary of the Vietnam Food Association (VFA), said: "To ensure that the rice export turnover in 2021 continues at a similar or higher level than 2020, with equivalent output, VFA has proposed a number of solutions to develop markets and access foreign markets through Vietnam Trade Offices abroad.VFA has built online sales channels as well as participating in online trade seminars to develop the rice industry. Products will focus on high quality products, having good export results."

In addition to the factors of digital transformation, the application of science and technology, in the perspective of promoting export in 2021, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development stated that the Ministry will continue to organize export activities, support trade in border provinces in the country in order to boost the export of agricultural, forestry and aquatic products to the Chinese market; continuing to negotiate, remove difficulties, trade barriers, open markets for Vietnamese agricultural products to officially export to othermarkets (fruits, seafood, livestock products).

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development mentioned the issue of actively capturing informationin order to effectively organize activities to promote, connect trade, maintain and expand exports in international markets as soon as the pandemic iscontrolled around the world.