In the first half of this year, despite facing many difficulties due to the Covid-19 pandemic, exports of agricultural, forestry and fishery products still achieved impressive results with a growth rate of more than 28% from the same period last year. "To take advantage of the victory”, the whole industry set a target of exporting US$45 billion for the whole year, exceeding $3 billion compared to the target assigned by the Government.

Agricultural products to the US and China skyrocket

Compared to the same period last year, in the first half of 2021, main agricultural product exports reached US$10.40 billion, up 13.3%; seafood $4.05 billion, up 12.5%; forest products $8.7 billion, up 61.5%. Rubber, tea, vegetables, cashew nuts, cassava and cassava products increased in both volume and value. Specifically, the increase is as follows: Rubber (41.3% and 80%); tea (0.1% and 4.5%); cashew nuts (22.2%, 11.1%); cassava and cassava products (16.3%, 30.5%). There was a collapse in the export volume of pepper (reaching 155,000 tons, down 6.7%), but thanks to the increase in export prices, the export value still increased (reached $499 million, up 40.5%). Other commodities increased in value mainly by volume such as: Wood and wood products reached 8.1 billion ($447 million (up 78.8%); shrimp increased by 74.8%); Rattan, bamboo and sedge mats reached about $1.66 billion (up 8.5%).

Phan The Tuan, Vice Chairman of Bac Giang Provincial People's Committee, said up to now, more than 200,000 tonnesd of lychee in Bac Giang province have been sold, marking a successful lychee crop. Despite the negative impact of the pandemic, this year's lychee selling price in Bac Giang is still high and equivalent to prior years without the pandemic. Revenue from lychee and ancillary services is estimated at about 6,800 billion VND (in 2020 this revenue was about 4500 billion VND). The consumption market remains in both domestic and export. Bac Giang lychee is consumed favorably even in such demanding markets as the US, Australia, EU, and Japan. The optimistic results are due to the confirmed quality of lychee.According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), total export turnover of agriculture, forestry and fishery in the first six months of 2021 recorded a sharp increase of $24.23 billion, up 28.2% over the same period last year, exceeding the plan. This impressive number was mainly due to high export turnover of some products including rubber, tea, pepper, cashew nuts, vegetables, cassava and products from cassava, wood and wood products, rattan, bamboo, sedge mats. In particular, rubber, tea, vegetables, cashew nuts, cassava and cassava products increased in both volume and export value.

In terms of markets, of the four largest import markets of Vietnam's agricultural, forestry and fishery products China, the US, Japan and South Korea, the two largest former ones were well maintained. The US is Vietnam's largest agricultural product export market with an export turnover of about $6.7 billion in the first half of this year (up 59.8% from the same period in 2020 and accounting for 27.9% of the total export value). China ranks second with export turnover of agriculture, forestry and fishery products about $4.75 billion (up 32.1% over the same period in 2020 and accounting for 19.6% of total export value).

Nguyen Van Viet, Director of the Planning Department (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development), said that to achieve high results in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, the ministry has directed to promote the opening of agricultural markets to countries such as Peru and Australia and coordinated with embassies and trade offices of Vietnam in other nations to set up channels for exchanging and providing information with key export markets such as Japan, Korea, the US, EU, China.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has supported Central Retail Group, consulted with agricultural counselors to connect with localities and businesses to export well-qualified products to EU and Thailand markets; negotiated with other countries to connect and promote the export of fruits and seafood to China, Thailand, the EU.

However, the leader of the Planning Department also said the typical limitation in the first half of this year is the delay in implementing solutions to remove difficulties and organise trade promotion activities to promote consumption in the post-Covid-19 due to the complex situations such as lockdown and travel limitation.

Raise export target to $45 billion

With the positive results achieved in the past six months, the agricultural sector has set a 3-3.2% GDP growth rate target for the whole year 2021 and production value of the whole industry up 3.2 - 3.5%. Notably, total export turnover of agricultural, forestry and fishery products in 2021 will reach the target of about $45 billion (higher than the $3 billion allocated by the Government).

To achieve the goal, it is necessary to implement solutions aiming at key export products with high potential and ability to increase export value to compensate for others that may not meet the turnover target. The export of main agricultural products reached $21.5 billion; forest products and furniture reached $14 billion; seafood reached $8.5 billion; other items reached about $1 billion.

Nguyen Van Viet added that in the second half of the year, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development will focus on expanding export markets by taking advantages of free trade agreements (FTAs), especially the Vietnam-EU FTA. (EVFTA), Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CTPPP); promptly solving technical difficulties, facilitating customs clearance, logistics infrastructure not to let goods stagnate at export border gates to the Chinese market (fresh fruits, vegetables, aquatic products, and other products and livestock products).

Notably with the leading export market, the US, some agricultural experts said it is necessary to monitor and have a timely plan related to the application of the Farm Bill Law in seafood, the legal origin of timber and products, anti-dumping investigation on honey, maintain negotiations to open the bilateral market for agricultural products. With the Chinese market, it is necessary to speed up negotiations to open the official export door of valuable and potential agricultural products such as sweet potato, durian, chilli, passion fruit, grapefruit and coconut.

“Expanding the agricultural product market to economies with complementary product structures with Vietnam such as Japan, South Korea, India, the European Union or the Middle East; selecting and bringing suitable products to potential markets such as Russia, the Middle East, Africa and ASEAN is also an important solution in the coming time,” emphasised the leader of the Planning Department.

From a perspective of the seafood industry, Tran Dinh Luan, Director General of the Directorate of Fisheries (MARD) said the fisheries sector will focus on developing key species such as black tiger shrimp, white leg shrimp, pangasius and others with high economic value. Localities must strengthen environmental monitoring and warning in concentrated farming areas to issue recommendations and warnings to limit damage to farmers.

The General Department will implement synchronous solutions to create a breakthrough in combating illegal, undeclared and unregulated (IUU) fishing, removing the European Commission’s “yellow card” warning.

In addition to solutions on export markets, the representative of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development also especially emphasised the importance of developing and applying high technology, digital transformation; developing e-commerce, strengthening support for firms to distribute goods on e-commerce platforms; promoting the connection of domestic and foreign agricultural enterprises via cooperation and association in production and consumption of agricultural products.