Rice packs loaded for export. The Philippines is the largest market for Việt Nam, accounting for 35-40 per cent of the country’s total exports. — VNA/VNS Photo Vũ Sinh

HÀ NỘI — Agriculture ministers of Việt Nam and the Philippines have agreed to establish a rice industry alliance between the two countries and upgrade the trade relationship into an investment partnership in the rice industry.

During a talk on Tuesday in Hà Nội Lê Minh Hoan, Vietnamese Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, said that the Philippines is the largest rice export of Việt Nam, accounting for 35-40 per cent of the country’s total exports.

The ministry’s statistics showed that Việt Nam’s rice export totalled 4.68 million tonnes in the first half of this year, worth US$2.98 billion, an increase of 104 per cent in volume and 32 per cent in value over the same period last year.

Việt Nam’s rice industry has been making significant transformations in production, domestic consumption and exports in the context of rapid changing global market and consumer tastes as well as climate change, Hoan said.

“Việt Nam has been focusing on improving quality, reducing costs, adapting to climate change, reducing emissions, ensuring the national food security, expanding export markets and building sustainable rice brands in the international markets,” he said.

Hoan said rice production plays a core role in ensuring the national and regional food security, as well as promoting economic development, ensuring social stability and leveraging the position of Việt Nam in the international arena.

With the sustainable agriculture and rural development strategy by 2030 with a vision to 2045, Việt Nam is aiming at green and low-emission agriculture value chain.

The Philippine's Secretary of Agriculture Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr, in response, said that the country has imported 2.17 million tonnes of rice in the first half of this year, of which 1.59 tonnes were from Việt Nam. Việt Nam has been the largest rice supplier to the Philippines for dozens of years.

Last week, the Department of Agriculture of the Philippines visited Cửu Long (Mekong) River Delta to study the 1-million-ha rice cultivation model.

Addressing challenges that the Philippines’ agriculture industry is facing, including low productivity and scattered production, which are weighing on food security, Francisco asked Việt Nam to establish a rice industry alliance between the two countries. This will promote the rice trade relationship into an investment partnership.

He said that the Philippines will study the opportunities to import machinery and technologies from Việt Nam to apply in rice cultivation in the Philippines. The first thing would be for the country to import fertilisers from Việt Nam.

Agreeing with Francisco, Hoan said that the investment partnership in the rice industry will allow Việt Nam to send appropriate technologies to optimise the rice production chain of the Philippines, instead of exporting just milled rice.

Not only rice, Hoan also urged greater cooperation in the fishery sector.