International consumer confidence in Vietnamese agricultural products increases.

This is the view of Mr. Ho Xuan Hung - Chairman of Vietnam General Association of Agriculture and Rural Development - former Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development on the changes of the agricultural sector in recent times.

Two remarkable achievements during the pandemic

According to Mr. Ho Xuan Hung, in recent times, the agricultural sector has achieved very good results. At the first session of the 15th National Assembly, many delegates said that it is necessary to give rewards to the agricultural sector because in recent times it has truly become a "support" for the economy.

Back in 2020, in the context of complicated epidemics on both humans and livestock, droughts, floods... the agricultural sector still strived to grow by over 2.65%. This is a very remarkable figure.

In 2021, the global economic situation is even more gloomy with the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, widespread disruption of supply chains and strict epidemic control causing many places to fall into economic exhaustion. In that situation, we witnessed the agricultural sector ensuring domestic food security. Not only that, the export targets set up to this point have all been met.

“One thing that needs to be more clearly recognized in the growth of agricultural exports is that for a long time, people have often focused on numbers in terms of quantity and foreign currency value, but have rarely evaluated an extremely important value: the increasing trust of international consumers in Vietnamese agricultural products. In particular, in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic happening globally, causing disruptions in many supply chains, Vietnam has still opened up many new export markets. Many agricultural products have met the needs of demanding markets such as lychees in the Japanese market, rambutans in the Taiwanese market, pumpkins and strawberries in New Zealand…”, Mr. Ho Xuan Hung emphasized.

Pineapple harvest in Nghe An. Photo courtesy: Nguyen Book

The second major achievement, according to Mr. Hung, is that in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, many workers lost their jobs in urban areas, most of them returned to the countryside - this is the rear of the majority of workers in factories and workshops in urban areas. In this rear, businesses and agricultural communities have shared and protected workers. This is clearly demonstrated when provinces are welcoming their children back from large cities where the epidemic is raging. "When we built and advised the Government on the National Target Program on New Rural Development, it was expected that by this time it would only reach 50%. But as of June 2021, 63.64% of communes have met the "New Rural" standards, this is also a practical achievement for the countryside to become a solid rear as it is today," said Mr. Hung.

It can be said that in the context of the world crisis, many countries have negative or insignificant growth, the GDP figure of Vietnam achieved over 5.6%, 1.82% higher than the same period last year is a success. That is the result of the "dual target" strategy, both fighting the epidemic and restoring economic development as proposed by the Government.

According to Mr. Hung: “The policy of implementing the 'dual goal' is not only proposed in forums and conferences but has also been put into practice. Besides the weakened sectors of tourism and services, industry and agriculture have both seen certain growth. The reason the policy is effective is because of the practical accompanying solutions. In early March 2020, the Government issued Directive No. 11/CT-TTg of the Prime Minister on urgent tasks and solutions to remove difficulties for production and business, ensuring social security in response to the Covid-19 epidemic. Immediately after that was the rescue package of 62,000 billion VND for workers and employers... These are extremely effective and impressive solutions.”

According to Mr. Hung's analysis, these are policies that not only support businesses but also directly support their employees - a great driving force to help businesses maintain or recover if they are unfortunately temporarily suspended due to the epidemic.

The Chairman of the General Association of Agriculture and Rural Development acknowledged that the "dual target" strategy has a huge and positive impact on the economy in general and the agricultural sector in particular. "This is a policy to develop the production chain and increase agricultural exports. To do this, leading enterprises are needed. Without this policy, localities and social organizations only focus on fighting the epidemic and pay little attention to solving difficulties in production, so businesses will not be interested in developing production and expanding export markets at this time," Mr. Hung analyzed.

Thanks to the good motivational policy, many solutions supported by the industries such as reducing interest rates, extending tax payment time, etc. have helped businesses stabilize the situation and promote development, creating confidence for workers.

Need to strengthen situation forecasting

According to Mr. Ho Xuan Hung, “Currently, the development of the COVID-19 epidemic is still very complicated, so it is important to forecast the situation. There needs to be forecasts applied not only domestically but also for international connections. If we cannot forecast the situation, we will only run after and respond.”

The former Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development assessed that the responses to the epidemic and the economic growth in general and the agricultural sector in particular in the past time were also forecasts of the situation, even if only in the short term. "The market is now interconnected, so no country can easily implement an embargo. If we can forecast the market, we can proactively respond and develop industries," Mr. Hung analyzed.

Along with that, the Chairman of the General Association of Agriculture and Rural Development also proposed that the Government persistently stabilize the macro-economy. According to Mr. Hung, this is the earliest way to stabilize the situation after the epidemic. “In particular, for agriculture, it is necessary to continue restructuring, build clean agriculture and apply science and technology effectively, not in general. This needs to be linked with organizing domestic and international markets. There needs to be more specific policies in building agricultural product value chains. It is good that the Government has a group of national key products. There needs to be policies to maintain and promote these products because without key products, we will not be able to compete when we cannot offer products that the market wants,” Mr. Hung emphasized.

Sugarcane harvest in Tan Ky - Nghe An. Photo: Cam Tu

Expert Ho Xuan Hung also proposed that the agricultural sector should focus more on administrative reform to attract FDI enterprises to agriculture because the proportion of FDI enterprises in agriculture is too low compared to many other fields. Along with that, there should be policies to effectively use each hectare of rice land. "The world has followed nutritional security, the rice industry also has many policies and reached 3.03 billion USD in 2020 while the fruit industry has quietly developed and earned 3.27 billion USD or cashew nut exports alone earned 3.19 billion USD... Therefore, we must also have appropriate policy adjustments according to market trends," Mr. Hung cited.

Another problem Mr. Hung pointed out was: “Why is it that in every province you can find centers that support land funds for industrial parks, but it is very difficult to find a center that supports land funds for agriculture? Because the land policy for agriculture still has many shortcomings. This requires amending the Land Law so that agriculture can have more conditions to concentrate production. If it continues to be fragmented as it is now, it will be impossible to develop the industry.”

Mr. Hung also expressed his hope that the Government could reorganize the balance between the domestic and export markets. Businesses need to be aware of their responsibility to consumers right from the domestic market, "don't let the same mango be sold domestically but packaged beautifully for export."

From this awareness, the Government can also accompany businesses in building brands. Mr. Hung emphasized: "Businesses have the responsibility to build their brands, but if they want to have products that bring glory to the country, they need specific policies to build national and international brands together, especially in the context of e-commerce booming like today."