When agriculture and diplomacy "join hands" to bring Vietnamese agricultural products to the world

In mid-August 2023, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs signed an Action Plan to implement economic diplomacy to contribute to promoting the development of the agricultural sector in the 2023-2026 period. The fact that the two sectors of agricultural diplomacy and agriculture "join hands" to carry out economic diplomacy is one of the important factors behind the impressive figures of Vietnam's agricultural exports in 2023.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son and Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan sign the action plan. Photo: Lam Khanh - VNA

If you want to go far, go together.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan affirmed that if we want to go far, we must go together and if we want Vietnamese agricultural products to go far, we must connect with the Foreign Affairs sector.

In that spirit, Minister Le Minh Hoan expressed his hope that the Foreign Affairs sector, especially Vietnamese representative agencies abroad, will continue to accompany the Agriculture sector to overcome challenges, promptly grasp opportunities and world market information to continuously improve quality and bring Vietnamese agricultural products to more markets.

Minister Le Minh Hoan also said that Vietnamese representative agencies abroad are not only a channel for marketing domestic agricultural products internationally, but also a reliable and effective information channel in providing the agricultural sector with timely production models and advanced agricultural science and technology achievements in the world, thereby changing policies to transform traditional domestic agricultural production models to modern ones, improving production technology capacity and agricultural product quality.

For his part, Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son highly appreciated the achievements and contributions of the agricultural sector in recent times to the country's socio-economic development. The Minister affirmed that agriculture is the pillar of the economy, making an important contribution to the overall growth of the economy; an essential foundation in ensuring social security; and a leading strength in international cooperation and foreign affairs activities of Vietnam.

Recognizing the role, importance and strengths of Vietnamese agriculture, Minister Bui Thanh Son said that in recent times, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Vietnamese representative agencies have paid great attention and actively accompanied the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in promoting and opening markets for Vietnamese agricultural, forestry and fishery products; connecting international cooperation and attracting resources to serve agricultural development in a modern and sustainable direction; supporting the agricultural sector in international integration and promoting and enhancing its role in multilateral cooperation mechanisms.

In the coming time, from the forecast of the world, regional and domestic context with many complex and unpredictable developments, Minister Bui Thanh Son emphasized that promoting economic diplomacy to support the agricultural sector in the current period is extremely necessary, contributing to the implementation of the Government's and Prime Minister's directions on removing difficulties for the export of agricultural, forestry and fishery products, serving the goal of maintaining economic growth, contributing to the implementation of the Resolution of the 13th Party Congress.

Minister Bui Thanh Son requested the units of the two ministries to focus on implementing the 6 key tasks stated in the Action Plan, paying special attention to close coordination, consultation, and integration to make economic cooperation in general and agricultural cooperation one of the focuses in the contacts and exchanges between Senior Leaders and partners; promoting the signing of specific, breakthrough cooperation agreements during the visits.

The functional units of the two ministries strengthen market information, improve the effectiveness of promotion and advertising with a systematic, long-term strategy to boost the export of agricultural, forestry and fishery products; promote consultation and attract resources in both bilateral and multilateral cooperation to serve the agricultural transformation process, adapt to new trends, requirements and regulations on green and sustainable development, especially in terms of investment capital, technology, management experience, etc.

Impressive numbers

The fact that the two sectors of Agriculture and Foreign Affairs "joined hands" in carrying out economic diplomacy has contributed significantly to "giving wings" to Vietnamese agricultural products to fly far. As a result, despite economic difficulties at home and abroad and geopolitical instability in the world, Vietnam's agricultural, forestry and fishery exports still maintained the same level as last year. Notably, for the first time, Vietnam had an agricultural product with an export turnover of more than 5 billion USD.

Vietnamese dragon fruit is sold at AEON supermarket in Chiba province (Japan). Photo: Thanh Tung/VNS

Speaking to the press, Mr. Phung Duc Tien, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, said that in the past 11 months, the export of the entire agricultural, forestry and fishery sector reached 47.84 billion USD, down 2.7% over the same period last year. However, with the advantages of vegetables, rice, cashew nuts... and the return of stability in forestry and fishery exports, it is estimated that agricultural, forestry and fishery exports in December will bring in more than 5 billion USD. Thus, the export turnover of agriculture, forestry and fishery in 2023 could reach over 53 billion USD, approaching the figure of 53.2 billion USD in 2022.

According to Deputy Minister Phung Duc Tien, up to now, the agricultural sector has had 6 products with export value reaching over 3 billion USD, including: coffee, rice, vegetables, cashew nuts, shrimp, wood and wood products. In particular, the biggest bright spot is the export of rice and vegetables, which has continuously increased sharply for many months.

Specifically, for rice, in the 11 months of 2023, Vietnam exported 7.75 million tons of rice, worth 4.41 billion USD, up 36.3% over last year. This is the highest record number ever.

For the fruit and vegetable industry, in the first 11 months of 2023, the export turnover reached 5.3 billion USD, an increase of 74.5% over the same period in 2022. This is the first time an agricultural product has achieved an export turnover of over 5 billion USD. If in December 2023, the export turnover of fruits and vegetables still reaches 500 million USD like in November, the export value of fruits and vegetables for the whole year will reach 5.8 billion USD.

Thus, it can be seen that with the cooperation of the two sectors of Agriculture and Foreign Affairs, Vietnam's agricultural, forestry and fishery exports have improved in the last months of the year. This is the basis for the Agriculture sector to set more ambitious goals for 2024./.

Mai Huong