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| Packing pomelos for export at the factory of Chanh Thu Company. Photo: C.T |
Officially entering the difficult market
Durian exports to China, fresh longan to Japan, and pomelo to the US and UK. A series of Vietnamese agricultural products have officially entered “difficult” markets, marking a milestone for Vietnam’s agricultural exports in 2022. In which, many specialties of Vietnam will become items for Tet in many major countries.
After the specialty of Tan Lac red pomelo, Hoa Binh province has the first batch of Dien Yen Thuy pomelos that meet the standards and quality for export to the UK market. This shipment is transported by sea and is expected to arrive in the UK port for the Lunar New Year 2023.
Along with Hoa Binh’s specialties, at the end of November 2022, a shipment of Ben Tre green-skinned pomelo was officially exported to the US market, marking the 7th fruit of Vietnam allowed to be exported to the market after mango, longan, litchi, dragon fruit, rambutan and breast milk. This is a fruit with a long shelf life, promising to be a bright spot in Vietnam’s agricultural exports to a large market and one of the most demanding. At the same time, helping businesses and farmers earn higher profits from this specialty fruit.
The Chinese market is Vietnam’s second largest agricultural product importer after the US market. Recently, fresh chili has been officially exported again along with 9 kinds of fruits and black jelly, which has also opened up a great opportunity for Vietnamese fruits to be officially exported to the market.
Many fruit products successfully exported to fastidious markets have had great contributions from growers and businesses.
As a person with many years of experience in exporting fruit to the US and major markets, Nguyen Dinh Tung, General Director of VINA T&T Trading and Service Co., Ltd shared, VINA T&T has cooperated with farmers. building quality-assured planting areas, complying not to use pesticides that are banned by import markets.
“If you want to export to fastidious countries, like the US, you need a growing area code issued by the US Department of Agriculture, a product packaging unit that is assessed and granted a packing code by the US, and shipments through the US needs irradiation. For the European market, it is required to have Global G.A.P. certification, SMETA, ISO or HACCP environmental certification,” Tung said.
Vietnam’s main export rice product has also made an impression in the international arena with its quality when Vietnamese rice surpassed Thai rice – the biggest export competitor in the rice segment. Currently, both at home and in the international market, Vietnamese rice is gradually replacing Thai rice to the extent that Thailand’s strategy has also had to be change due to the growth of Vietnamese rice. According to businesses, Vietnamese rice recently also made an impression because, for the first time, fried rice using ST25 rice from Vietnam became a “special lunch” at the Japanese Cabinet Office. While in Europe, Vietnamese rice brands are sold on the shelves of 4,000 supermarkets in France.
According to Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan, the above result is a crossbreeding research journey of agronomists, a process of association, cooperation and investment of businesses with cooperatives. communes, farmers’ organizations; the story of “4 houses” (farmers – government – scientists – entrepreneurs) in the fields. Since then, the value of rice is derived from quality and change, adaptation and suitability with market trends.
Many export products reach a billion USD
With many new products officially exported to major markets, Vietnam’s agricultural export turnover for the first time reached over $49 billion in 11 months, up 11.8%, surpassing the record number of $48.6 billion in the whole of 2021. Sharing the joy of this result, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Phung Duc Tien said that in 2022, the agricultural sector will be assigned agricultural export quotas by the Government. production reached $50 billion, but it is likely to reach $53 billion.
This is a very encouraging result for the whole industry in the context of having to overcome many difficulties and challenges after the pandemic.
It is worth mentioning that in the context of volatile world markets, the demand for goods from the markets tends to decrease, but the agricultural sector has achieved positive highlights. In particular, rice exports so far have reached over 6.5 million tons, exceeding the target of the whole year.
The seafood industry has also reached the plan of $10 billion a month early, the highest level ever; coffee products reached approximately $4 billion, an increase of over 31% over the previous year.
Especially, export items in the billion USD group are increasing day by day. Up to now, the agricultural industry has eight products, the group of products with an export value of over $2 billion is coffee, rubber, rice, vegetables, cashew, shrimp, pangasius, and wood products.
One of the important reasons for the agricultural sector to achieve the above results, according to the leader of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, is the change from the mindset of agricultural production to the development of the agricultural economy.
Pointing to the proportion from Vietnam’s agricultural export market, Deputy Minister Phung Duc Tien said that in the current structure of Vietnam’s agricultural export market China is over 18%; America over 26%; Europe and some other markets are close to 40%.
Thus, from some difficulties of the market, enterprises have to turn the situation around to match, by focusing on processing; raw materials must be traceable; and flexible market promotion.
Phan Dinh Tung said that it is necessary to ensure the quality control of goods and preservation technology: for fresh fruit, it is necessary to harvest, process and transport from farm to factory in the shortest time to ensure quality.
In addition, the steps in the process need to match the timelines. Phan Minh Thong, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Phuc Sinh Group, said that businesses in the industry have had reforms, changes, digital investment, and diversified products and products with more depth than raw exports.
The company has diversified products and strictly controlled growing areas to processing finished products to ensure the best quality products. In particular, the company also strengthens direct sales through e-commerce platforms such as Amazon and Lazada.
Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Phung Duc Tien said that the agricultural sector is trying to negotiate to continue to expand official exports, and at the same time deploy to expand many markets to reduce market pressure.
Accordingly, it will promote the granting of codes of growing areas and farming areas to not only meet the export conditions to the Chinese market but also export to all markets such as the EU, the US, Japan, etc.
In addition, the agricultural sector is restructured towards meeting the criteria and standards of the markets. Businesses need to make the most of the traditional markets, focusing on promoting niche markets, and new markets also need to be researched and promoted. To comprehensively develop markets, both to develop products and to promote the export of agricultural products.