News

MoIT helps expand farm produce exports

Summary

Developing farm produce markets, including helping farmers increase sales, is an important target set by the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT).

Updated on : 06-01-2019

Market expansion

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, although it takes 5-7 years to accomplish negotiations and removal of technical and trade barriers to a certain item, Vietnam has opened up markets for its agricultural and seafood products, which are now present in almost 200 countries and territories.

Vietnam is implementing 10 bilateral and multilateral free trade agreements (FTAs), creating large markets for Vietnamese agricultural products.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) has been facilitating FTA implementation and assisting businesses in making the most of the opportunities offered.

A report by the ministry showed that Vietnam’s farm produce exports reached an average of US$22.1 billion per year from 2013-2017, with the 2017 figure amounting to US$25.86 billion. This indicates clearly that Vietnamese enterprises have made good use of opportunities offered by FTAs.

Since the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement (AANZFTA), Vietnam-Japan Free Trade Agreement (VJFTA) and ASEAN-India Free Trade Agreement (AIFTA) took effect in 2010, cashew and seafood exports to Australia have grown 12.9 and 6.9 percent per year, pepper and coffee exports to Japan soared 12.8 and 8 percent, and pepper and seafood exports to India have increased 14.3 and 12.3 percent per annum, respectively.

After the Vietnam-Eurasia Economic Union Free Trade Agreement (VN-EAEU FTA) took effect in October 2016, cashew and vegetable exports to Russia in 2017 grew 59.6 and 19.9 percent over the previous year.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade approved 656 domestic market development projects with a total cost of VND143.15 billion, 60 regional trade fair projects totaling VND76.24 billion in capital and 600 projects for bringing Vietnamese goods to rural, mountainous, border and island areas with a total cost of VND76.93 billion.

Export promotion, import control

The Ministry of Industry and Trade is working with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to ensure product quality, develop markets and manage exports as part of farm produce production and export chains.

Specifically, the ministry will continue negotiations for market expansion through such ongoing FTAs as Vietnam-Cuba and Vietnam-Israel FTAs, Vietnam-European Free Trade Association Free Trade Agreement (Vietnam-EFTA FTA), and Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement to create tax and rule of origin advantages for Vietnamese agricultural products. In addition, it will make good use of market incentives including tariff cut and reductions to boost Vietnam’s exports to FTA markets, and efficiently implement Government Decree 107/2018/ND-CP on rice exports dated August 15, 2018 while working with relevant ministries and sectors to promote Vietnamese agricultural products in foreign markets.

Vietnam earned US$1 billion or more from exporting farm produce to each of 19 markets in 2011. The number of such markets increased to 30 in 2017, with major exports including rice, coffee, vegetables, tea, rubber, coffee, pepper, cassava, and cashews.

Source: http://ven.vn