CropLife’s seminar to unlock Vietnam’s agri-export potential

Chu Van Chuong, deputy head of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s Department of International Co-operation

According to the Plant Protection Department under Vietnam's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, agricultural exports make an important contribution to Vietnam's total export turnover due to increasing demand as well as unique and well-positioned crops in the global market, including dragon fruit, black pepper, and coffee.

The country has good climate conditions to allow multiple harvests throughout the year. Additionally, Vietnam has singed a wide range of Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) bringing the country's agricultural industry ample opportunities for export.

Over the past five years, agri-product exports have maintained an average annual growth rate of 2.4 per cent. However, the proportion of agricultural exports continued to decline from 13 per cent in 2012 to 8.6 per cent in 2016 due to rising exports of forestry, aquatic products, and services.

Although Vietnam has developed regulations and standards for the Maximum Residue Level (MRL), compliance can be difficult as it requires the involvement of all stakeholders in the chain, including state management agencies, processing and packaging companies, farmers, and consumers.

MRL is the maximum amount of pesticide residue that is allowed to remain in food products after a pesticide is used according to label directions, a content that will harm human health.

Since there are many MRL systems around the world, it is hard to get frequent data updates and access to these. Thus, it is important to encourage the harmonisation of MRL standards of countries and territories.

Moreover, agricultural product quality and safety are addressed as major domestic and international concerns. Climatic challenges as well as sustainable development have also posed difficulties to Vietnamese agriculture.

Addressing the seminar, Kohei Sakata, chairman of CropLife Vietnam, urged stakeholders to speak up and collaborate to understand pain points and ideas to solve these challenges.

Kohei Sakata, chairman of CropLife Vietnam, sharing his thoughts at the seminar

First, he noted that understanding international standards and requirements is critical from many aspects. In October 2017, Directive No.38 was issued by Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc regarding free trade agreement (FTA) implementation and preparation for upcoming FTAs. This new directive highlights the importance of compliance to FTA requirements in order to fully utilise their economic benefits.

Some requirements include actively monitoring and updating the regulations on food safety and animal and plant quarantines applied by FTA partners to disseminate to domestic enterprises and propose the direction of implementation.

He further noted that innovation will be the key to accelerate agri-product exports. For example, drones have a potential use in crop protection. It would release farmers growers from labour-intensive spraying and eliminate the risk of operating exposure during spraying. With its targeted application feature, it may reduce the dosage or concentration of chemical ingredients.

“This is a good example of how we should consider balancing risks and benefits and maximising the potential of innovative technologies,” he said, expecting that there will be a growing number of scientific-based discussions to fully leverage the power of innovations which can benefit all stakeholders.

CropLife is an international industry platform of plant science technology. With the mission to help farmers to grow, CropLife specifically runs advocacy and outreach programmes to support farmers. As a result, farmers can produce sufficient amounts of food for a growing population and improve their livelihood through access to innovative modern agricultural technologies, including biotechnology and crop protection.

Northern Vietnamese corn farmers find way to sustainable development The Department of Crop Production (DoCP) under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, with support from Croplife Vietnam, hosted a workshop on “Sustainable development of corn in northern Vietnam” in the northern mountainous province of Son La, with the aim of drawing up solutions for the sustainable development of corn production in the future, enhancing corn farmers’ income, as well as emphasising the plant’s importance in Vietnam.

Raising agri-yields through biotechnology As the world needs to feed more people with less environmental impact and with dwindling resources, it is essential to equip farmers with the latest tools and technology. Dr. Siang Hee Tan, executive director of CropLife Asia – the regional chapter of CropLife International, and the voice of the global plant science industry – talked to VIR’s Khanh Tran on how ASEAN can meet the challenges of food security sustainably.