Agricultural export is expected to "boom" at the end of the year

	Lacking processing technology, expanding agricultural export markets is still difficult
	Maintaining the growth momentum of agricultural exports

Currently, fruits and vegetables are the commodity group recording the highest export growth of the entire agricultural industry. Photo: NT

Rice export is expected to set a record of US$ 4 billion

According to a report from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, at the end of September, rice export reached a value of US$ 3.66 billion, an increase of 40.4% over the same period last year. The average export price of rice reached US$553 per ton, up 14% over the same period in 2022 and at times reached nearly US$ 650 per ton. Vietnam's rice export price has set a record in the past 11 years and reached the highest level in the world. The average in 8 months is estimated at US$ 542 per ton, up 11.5% over the same period last year. This is a record that Vietnam's rice industry achieved thanks to the ongoing global food fever.

The Philippines still ranks first in Vietnam's rice consumption, accounting for 40.3% of total rice exports; followed by China accounting for 13.5%; Indonesia ranked third, accounting for 12.4%. In addition, the EU market area (Poland, Netherlands, Spain, Belgium...), Africa (Ghana, Angola...) also recorded positive growth.

Mr. Nguyen Van Viet, Director of the Planning Department (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development) said that in 9 months, the whole country harvested 33.6 million tons of rice, an increase of 0.7% over the same period last year. Provinces and cities in the Mekong Delta planted 625.7 thousand hectares of Autumn-Winter rice, an increase of 8.8%. Currently, some Autumn-Winter rice areas had been harvested in the context of "good harvest, good price", farmers earned good profits. In the Mekong Delta region alone, the rice growing area was estimated to reach over 3.8 million hectares by 2023, an increase of more than 13 thousand hectares; Productivity was estimated at 62.81 tons per ha, an increase of 0.88 tons per ha and output was estimated at nearly 24 million tons, an increase of 416 thousand tons compared to 2022.

According to the plan of the Bureau of Crop Production, in the Winter-Spring rice crop of 2023-2024, the Mekong Delta will sow nearly 1.5 million hectares. To avoid salinity drought in some coastal areas, the risk of water shortage at the end of the season and due to high rice prices, the Bureau of Crop Production recommends that farmers start sowing seeds from October 10, 2023. Thus, with the plan to sow the Winter-Spring rice crop early in October, by January 2024, Vietnam will continue to have new crop rice for sale. This is a favourable condition for businesses in finding partners and markets to export rice.

he Vietnam Food Association also comments that the Fall-Winter rice harvest has just begun, so the export market will continue to be favourable in the last 3 months of the year and export output will exceed 7.5 million tons. In addition, from now until the end of the year, the rice market will increase when Indonesia has just announced the opening of bids for 300,000 tons of 5% broken white rice from countries: Vietnam, Thailand, Pakistan and Cambodia. The Philippines has also just sent delegations to negotiate to buy rice from Vietnam when the country's demand is still high. Thus, according to forecasts, if the current growth momentum continues, by the end of 2023, Vietnam's rice exports will deeply break the old record in terms of volume, turnover and average export price. Accordingly, this year Vietnam's rice export turnover will definitely reach US$ 4 billion, the highest milestone in the past 10 years.

Vegetables, fruits and coffee continuously create new records

Some other agricultural products such as vegetables, fruits and coffee are also breaking export records when export of coffee, cashew nuts, and livestock products grew by 2-26% over the same period last year. Specifically, as of September 15, coffee export reached 1.2 million tons (down more than 5%), but turnover reached more than US$ 3 billion, up 5%. Notably, Vietnam's export coffee price recorded a record level in 30 years when the eight-month average price reached US$ 2,463 per ton, an increase of 8.9% over the same period last year.

According to the Vietnam Coffee and Cocoa Association, coffee prices are continuously increasing because supply is not enough to meet demand. This year's coffee output is forecast to decrease by 10-15% per year due to unfavourable weather. However, coffee export for the whole year will reach about 1.7 million tons, with an export turnover of US$ 4.2 billion, the highest ever

Another billion-dollar export product of the agricultural industry that is also shining upstream is cashew nuts. As of September 15, cashew exports reached nearly 421 thousand tons, an increase of about 15%, turnover reached more than US$ 2.4 billion, an increase of about 9%.

Besides the "boom" of coffee and cashew nuts, fruits and vegetables are currently the commodity group recording the highest export growth of the entire agricultural industry. The export value of this industry has so far exceeded the historical record of US$ 3.81 billion in 2018. Many forecasts are that fruit and vegetable export in 2023 could bring in more than US$ 5.5 billion when there are still 3 months left of the year.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, in the first 9 months of 2023, fruit and vegetable export reached US$ 4.2 billion, an increase of nearly 72% over the same period last year. Vietnamese fruit and vegetable products are exported mainly to markets such as China, the US, Korea, Japan, and the Netherlands. Among these top 5 markets, only the US market decreased slightly, the remaining markets all had strong growth. Typically, in the Chinese market, fruit and vegetable export have reached over US$ 2.26 billion, up 134% over the same period last year. Next is the Netherlands with an increase of 50%, Korea with an increase of 18%, and Japan with an increase of 6%. China is also the leading market in terms of export market share with nearly 64%, followed by the US, Korea, Japan, Netherlands...

According to the Bureau of Plant Protection (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development), the fruit and vegetable products that have opened Vietnam's market currently are: dragon fruit, longan, lychee, mango, rambutan, grapefruit, lemon, star apple, banana. The products being negotiated to open the market are passion fruit to the US and Australia; grapefruit to Japan, Korea, Australia, India; durian to India; frozen citrus fruits, coconuts, and durian to China.

Other products with potential to open the market in the future are avocados and seedless lemons. Notably, in early August 2023, the US Plant Quarantine Service (APHIS) officially announced that Vietnamese manufacturers could start exporting coconut to the US. Thus, along with the negotiation of official export of coconut products to China, in the coming time, Vietnamese coconuts are expected to quickly become a billion-dollar commodity, contributing to increasing the export turnover of whole fruit and vegetable industry.

With the current momentum of fruit and vegetable export, the target of US$ 5 billion in turnover for the whole year 2023 is not too far away. However, in the hot growth process of many products, especially fruit products, the requirement of maintaining and constantly improving quality and ensuring food safety and hygiene is an important factor. determines the reputation and value of the entire industry.