Looking back at the turbulent year 2024 with the impact of natural disasters, assessing the potential, opportunities and challenges of Vietnamese agricultural, forestry and fishery products in 2025, Nong Thon Ngay Nay/Dan Viet Newspaper, in coordination with the Office of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, has organised an online discussion with the theme: "Agricultural product exports in 2024 - New record, new position".
Record high exports of agricultural, forestry and fishery products
In 2024, the total export turnover of agricultural, forestry and fishery products is estimated to reach a record high of 62.4 billion USD, an increase of 18.5% compared to 2023. The trade surplus continues to a new record of 18.6 billion USD, an increase of 53.1%.
This is the result of efforts to change thinking and the structure of the agricultural sector towards increasing value and green transformation and the negotiation process opening the market for many key agricultural products, typically durian, coconut, and bird's nest.
Talking about the industry’s outstanding achievements in the past year, Deputy Director of the Plant Protection Department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) Nguyen Quang Hieu emphasised: It can be said that the 11-month summary figure of agricultural, forestry and fishery exports is quite surprising. Just counting the 11 months, the export turnover of vegetables and fruits alone has exceeded the whole year of 2023 by 1 billion USD.
The summary figure for vegetable and fruit export turnover 2 years ago was only 3.4 billion USD, up to now, this number has doubled. That reflects the whole process of development and opening the market, not just the results in one or two years.
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Deputy Director of the Plant Protection Department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) Nguyen Quang Hieu affirmed: It can be said that the 11-month summary figure of agricultural, forestry and fishery exports is quite surprising. Just counting the 11 months, the export turnover of vegetables and fruits alone has exceeded the whole year of 2023 by 1 billion USD. |
According to the Deputy Director of the Plant Protection Department, the success of agricultural exports is due not only to the contribution of the products but also to the capacity of specialised agencies, and an important factor is the awareness of production and export units that have complied with regulations in the role of maintaining and expanding the market. "We hope that agricultural exports will continue to maintain growth in the coming time," Hieu shared.
Difficulties and challenges
Despite many achievements in exporting agricultural, forestry and fishery products, in 2024, export markets will continuously announce changes in regulations on food safety and animal and plant disease safety in importing these products.
Sharing about this issue, Ngo Xuan Nam, Deputy Director of the National Office of Notification and Inquiry Point on Sanitary Epidemiology and Plant and Plant Quarantine (SPS Vietnam), said: We are very proud of Vietnam's agriculture, however, to enter demanding markets is a problem and a process of effort. We want to export not only based on the quantity and quality of products but also must meet the regulations of the markets. To have products, we have to spend many years negotiating and making efforts for many units to achieve the regulations of the new market opening up and exporting products.
According to Nam, the export situation in 2024, as well as in many previous years, is considered a common trend in the world. Most WTO members, as well as other markets, have many regulations on product imports. That is why the WTO has established the Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures.
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Ngo Xuan Nam, Deputy Director of the National Office of Notification and Inquiry Point on Sanitary Epidemiology and Plant and Plant Quarantine (SPS Vietnam) |
According to statistics from the SPS Office, in 2024, markets issued 1,029 food safety notifications, on average, the SPS office had to issue three notifications per day, with some notifications having hundreds of pages. Regulations on pesticide residues for other products, such as dragon fruit and coffee, are different.
In response to that change, the Prime Minister issued a decision to direct the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and other ministries and localities to immediately implement it to ensure compliance with regulations for the smooth export of products.
Immediately after that, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development approved Decision 2998 (Decision 2998/QD-BNN-CCPT Implementation Plan of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to implement the SPS Project), and so far, most localities have promptly taken action.
Expectations for 2025
At the seminar on opportunities in 2025 to increase the value of agricultural, forestry and fishery exports, managers and experts, all agreed that there are many opportunities but also great challenges. Ngo Xuan Nam expressed concern when the SPS Office often received warnings.
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In 2025, there are many opportunities and challenges in increasing the value of agricultural, forestry and fishery exports. |
According to Nam, we have achieved a record in exports but also need a breakthrough in quality for sustainable development.
According to the Deputy Director of the Vietnam SPS Office, most of the SPS contents are increasingly improved, and the story of food safety will be the story that countries are increasingly improving in quality. This will be an inevitable trend in the world.
"Hopefully, in 2025, exports will have many new things, but the most important thing is to set a record for quality", Nam shared.
