The Agriculture sector has been proactively carrying out many solutions on production, promoting product consumption to ensure the supply of agricultural products to the market at the end of the year. At the same time, the sector is ready for the difficulties that are forecast at the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023.

THE EXPORT VALUE OF AGRICULTURE IN 2022 WILL REACH 53 BILLION USD 

Facing challenges from weather, pandemic risks, and market fluctuations, the entire Agriculture sector has maintained growth, contributing to macroeconomic stability. Accordingly, in 11 months of 2022, Vietnam’s agricultural exports reached a total turnover of 49.04 billion USD, up nearly 12% compared to the same period in 2021. Now, the Agriculture sector has 8 products/groups of products with an export value of over 2 billion USD, including coffee, rubber, rice, vegetables, cashew nut, shrimp, catfish, and wood products.

Remarkably, recently, fresh grapefruit is the 7th fruit of our country allowed to be imported into the US market after mangoes, longan, lychee, dragonfruits, rambutan, star apple, etc. This is the result of the negotiation effort in a long time of the specialized agencies and the persistent accompaniment of the community of Vietnamese grapefruit producers and exporters. It is expected that by 2022, the export value of the Agriculture sector will reach over 53 billion USD.

For the domestic market, fruit and vegetable commodities have an abundant and relatively stable supply. The prices of the fruits are expected to increase slightly due to increased demand for festivals at the end of the year.

Fresh grapefruit is the 7th fruit of our country to be allowed to be imported into the US. (Photo: Internet)

Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) Phung Duc Tien said that: Although the results achieved by the Agriculture sector in 2022 are quite positive in the context of the current world economy, it is forecast that 2023 will be difficult.

Accordingly, the world market continues to have many fluctuations and is influenced by the factors of geo-economic competition, geopolitics, etc. Especially, the fuel and energy groups will impact the domestic market, causing transport costs to increase sharply. Some countries have tightened the credit due to inflation and issued new policies to ensure national food security. In addition, China has increased control of goods, allegations of origin fraud, and raw material origin, etc are becoming challenges for agricultural exports in general, especially for Vietnamese wood and wood products. The input costs for production are still high even reduced.

BE READY FOR FORECAST DIFFICULTIES

Deputy Minister Phung Duc Tien emphasized that, currently, the Agriculture sector needs to prevent the shortage of food, causing instability in society. In the coming time, it is necessary to continue to call for the participation of enterprises to promote exports and the restructuring of the sector.

Regarding further analysis of the market at the end of the year, Minister of MARD Le Minh Hoan said that every year, the growth of agricultural products will increase sharply in November and December due to the high demand for festivals at the end of the year. However, in 2022, due to global inflation, demand decreases, and the market will be less vibrant. Therefore, Minister Le Minh Hoan said that the Agriculture sector should continue to be ready for the forecast difficulties at the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023.

The MARD also said that, in the last month of 2022, the Ministry will promote international cooperation and market development to promote the consumption of agricultural products. Specifically, the Ministry will continue to direct the implementation of the Protocol on durian export and temporary requirements for passion fruit to China, and import requirements for grapefruit exported to the US for relevant organizations and individuals in localities.

The Agriculture sector is ready for the difficulties that are forecast at the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023. (Photo: Internet)

FOOD SAFETY FOR THE LUNAR NEW YEAR QUY MAO 

In the period of late 2022 and early 2023, the MARD will carry out the Plan to ensure food safety for the Lunar New Year and the Spring Festival 2023 and the Project to ensure food safety, improve the quality of agricultural, forestry and fishery products between 2021-2030. Besides, the Ministry will guide and support enterprises to recover their production to ensure food quality and safety.

In particular, the Ministry will negotiate technical contents to soon sign the Protocol on plant quarantine requirements for dragonfruit, longan, lychee, rambutan, and mangoes exported to China; and coordinate with the China Customs weekly online inspections on bananas and durian.

Along with that, the Ministry also negotiates to remove technical and trade barriers, and open official exports to other large and potential markets such as Japan, Korea, Myanmar, Australia, New Zealand, etc. In addition, specialized units shall work with Japanese phytosanitary inspectors to inspect processing establishments of Vietnamese dragonfruit, mango, and longan to promote the export of these products.

The Ministry will work closely with associations and the Trade Defense Department to respond to trade defense investigations. Enterprises are encouraged to increase the application of digital technology in enterprise management, e-commerce, and goods preparation for Christmas; promptly respond to market fluctuations; strictly comply with the regulations on origin documents.

For the domestic market, the Ministry actively coordinates with localities and commodity industry associations to monitor fluctuations in prices of essential food items for domestic consumption, supplies (pork, rice, fertilizer, animal feed); items with fluctuations in prices (pepper, catfish, coffee, poultry) to ensure the supply for domestic demand and balance supply and demand in the New Year Quy Mao holiday./.