Agricultural, forestry and fishery exports reach US$54 billion: A feasible task

Many of Vietnam's key agricultural products have their own positions in the Asia-Africa market.

Frozen durian could reach an export turnover of US$400 - 500 million

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, in August 2024, the total export turnover of agricultural, forestry and fishery products reached US$5.55 billion, up 12.3 percent compared to the same period in 2023.

Of which, main agricultural products reached US$2.99 billion, up 22.6 percent compared to the same period in 2023; forestry products reached US$1.45 billion, up 4.7 percent compared to the same period in 2023; aquatic products reached US$900 million, up 5 percent compared to the same period in 2023.

Notably, fruit and vegetable products continued to grow impressively, with export turnover in August 2024 reaching US$750 million, up 29 percent compared to the previous month and up 52.8 percent compared to the same period in 2023.

This is one of the months with the highest export value of fruits and vegetables of the year due to falling in the peak durian harvest period in the Central Highlands. As a result, in the first 8 months of 2024, Vietnam's cumulative export of agricultural, forestry and fishery products reached US$40.08 billion, up 18.6 percent compared to the same period last year.

Commenting on the opportunities for the remaining months of the year, many experts said that, among the three groups of products that have just signed the protocol, frozen durian is considered the product with the largest export value, contributing significantly to agricultural export turnover.

The official opening of the Chinese market for this product is expected to create great opportunities for the Vietnamese durian industry. In 2023, Vietnam exported about 500,000 tons of durian, reaching a turnover of US$2.3 billion, of which exports to China accounted for 90 percent.

"It is expected that frozen durian exports can reach an export turnover of US$400 - 500 million in 2024 - the first year after signing the Protocol, bringing the total export value of durian to US$3.2 - 3.5 billion", the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development added.

Many market opportunities by the end of the year

In addition to the good news from the Chinese market, recently, Vietnam and the United States have reached an agreement for Vietnamese passion fruit to be imported into this country, a market that accounts for more than 20 percent of the country's total agricultural export turnover.

According to statistics, Vietnam is currently the country with the third largest export volume of passion fruit in the world, behind only Peru and Brazil. Before being granted a "visa" to the US, Vietnamese passion fruit was exported to markets with strict requirements on quality, quarantine, and food safety such as South Korea, China, Australia, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Switzerland.

In addition, according to the Plant Protection Department, since the August of the year, Vietnamese enterprises have been able to export fresh grapefruit to the South Korean market. Thus, after dragon fruit and mango, grapefruit is the third fresh fruit from Vietnam allowed to be imported into South Korea.

For coffee, it is forecasted that in the short term, exports will gradually decrease due to exhausted supply, but in the long term, coffee exports will recover when the 2024-2025 coffee harvest begins and consumption demand increases during the year-end holiday season.

In particular, by the end of the year, the world's demand for food is increasing, so Vietnam's agricultural products have more and more opportunities to enter the export acceleration cycle, soon reaching or even exceeding the annual export target.

According to Mr. Phung Duc Tien, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, with the results achieved in the first 8 months of the year, along with market opportunities in the following months, agricultural, forestry and fishery exports will achieve the Prime Minister's plan for the agricultural sector of US$54 - 55 billion. This result lays the foundation for relatively stable growth of the entire agricultural sector in 2024.

If we only count the draft notifications of changes in SPS measures, Japan has the most with 142 notifications (accounting for 12 percent of the total notifications), followed by the EU with 121 notifications (10 percent), the US with 90 notifications (8 percent), China with 34 notifications (3 percent)...

The increasing number of SPS notifications proves that the world market is very interested in food quality, hygiene, and safety, as well as increasingly demanding higher standards on this issue as well as factors related to green growth.

“The EU is one of the key export markets for Vietnamese agricultural products. This is also one of the markets with many strict and scientific requirements in terms of technology. If we comply well with the requirements of the EU market, it will be an opportunity to bring Vietnamese agricultural products to many potential markets in the world when Vietnam has been and is participating. Agricultural and food products that want to be imported into the EU must comply with the regulations set forth by this market. Currently, the EU divides imported agricultural and food products into 2 categories, low risk and high risk. Of which, low-risk products, through EU assessments, will not require systematic control at the border gate. On the contrary, high-risk products will need many control measures," Mr. Ngo Xuan Nam emphasized.