Vietnam: Opportunities to promote agro-product trading to the German and Swiss markets
30 June 2022, VN: On June 28, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) Mr. Le Quoc Doanh had a meeting with Mr. Philipp Rosler, Honorary Consul of Vietnam in Switzerland and a delegation of Swiss and German businesses.
For the purpose of this visit to Vietnam, the delegation including 22 prestigious Swiss and German enterprises, investment funds, start-up funds, and Germany wanted to explore opportunities for cooperation and technology investment, advanced equipment in the two fields of rice and seafood of Vietnam.
Dr. Philipp Rosler highly appreciated Vietnam’s rice production and export activities, with its proven strength in the world market. He said that Vietnam is increasingly becoming an important partner not only for Switzerland and Germany but also with member countries of the European Union (EU), especially in the field of agricultural production and food processing. The Swiss and German delegations have two concerns: producing and exporting agricultural products from Vietnam to other countries in the world and ensuring sustainable agricultural development.
For issues related to sustainable development, especially food production, sustainable food, applying technology as well as innovation reform strategies is inevitable. Dr. Rosler wants the MARD to point out preferential policies and support for Swiss and German businesses that intend to invest in technology and digitization in Vietnam’s aquaculture sector.
On behalf of the MARD, Mr. Doanh welcomes the delegation and hopes that this visit will open up opportunities to cooperate with businesses from other countries participating in the chain of rice and seafood production. ,.. At the same time, the MARD also wishes to take advantage of the EU-Vietnam Trade Agreement.
The Deputy Minister affirmed that every year, Vietnam exports from 6 to 6.5 million tons of rice with a value of over 3 billion USD, of which high quality rice accounts for nearly 90%, contributing to ensuring world food security. In the context that the world food and food system is facing challenges from natural disasters, epidemics and conflicts, Vietnam sees this as an opportunity to expand its export market.
“In addition to productivity, the rice industry needs to reduce input costs as well as change farmers’ habit of using fertilizers and pesticides. As such, we need the cooperation of businesses to access advanced technologies to help overcome these shortcomings,” said Deputy Minister Le Quoc Doanh.
Currently, the Government of Vietnam is interested in new areas of investment in technology in agriculture for sustainable development, greening, and emission reduction. This is a very new field, which is opening up many opportunities for foreign businesses to invest in the country, helping Vietnam to meet the orientations of building a commodity-based agriculture, making an important contribution to the country’s economy, socio-economic stability, environmental protection, response to climate change and effective implementation of international commitments on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development wishes to cooperate in areas where Switzerland and Germany have strengths such as animal husbandry, post-harvest preservation technology, fruit and vegetable processing, coffee, seafood, especially aquaculture development. products in the direction of improving quality, value and sustainability, developing organic aquaculture… In order to continue to support and encourage investment in high-tech fields in the seafood industry, the MARD has initially also there are preferential policies, especially on corporate income tax, tax related to food, exemption and reduction of import tax on some machinery and equipment according to Vietnam’s regulations. In aquaculture industry, the MARD always considers the EU market as an important market and is very interested in cooperative investment of businesses from the EU.
Representatives of business delegations and investors in the Swiss and German seafood sectors said that Vietnam’s seafood industry has also made strong strides in the past 10 years, with impressive figures in terms of value. export. However, environmental factors in the development of the seafood industry have not been focused by Vietnam, leading to the failure to meet the quality standards of many EU markets. Therefore, the Government of Vietnam needs to be more drastic in controlling the use of banned substances in aquaculture so that the aquaculture industry can grow quickly but still ensure sustainability.
Responding to the opinion of the delegation, Mr. Nguyen Nhu Tiep, Director of the Department of Agro-Forestry and Fisheries Quality Management (Nafiqad) said that the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has and continues to have solutions to increase the awareness of farmers. stakeholders in the production and management chain from distribution to use of antibiotics to reduce input costs and limit residues of banned substances. Therefore, the coordination with Swiss and German businesses to transfer green technology in the near future will help Vietnam’s seafood industry develop more sustainably.
Tiep added that Nafiqad’s large-scale monitoring data on antibiotic residues under EU import regulations has recently decreased significantly.
“I can guarantee that Vietnamese seafood has better quality and will be safer than countries in the region such as Thailand and Indonesia,” Tiep affirmed.
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