Vietnamese firms need to enhance their role in the food industry valuechain to supply more quality products and increase export of farmproduce, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
Speaking at a conference in Ho Chi Minh City on May 14, DeputyMinister of Industry and Trade Do Thang Hai said the agricultural sectornot only met local needs with its diverse, quality products but alsoexported to many countries around the world.
Agricultural exports had increased strongly in recent years to more than30 billion USD last year, with Vietnam being among the world's largestexporters of many items like cashew, pepper, rice and coffee, he said.
"However, limited processing capacity, and a lack ofbrands and exports via many intermediaries have resulted in low exportearnings."
Held by the Vietnam Trade PromotionAgency on the sidelines of the first Vietnam International Food IndustryExhibition, the conference sought to come up with measures to add valueto Vietnamese food products, improve their competitiveness, and promotethem globally.
Pham Minh Duc, senior economist atthe World Bank in Vietnam, said fragmented land ownership, qualitycontrol issues, low quality of seeds and other inputs, and poortechniques and misuse of inputs like water and pesticides were among thechallenges faced by the agricultural sector.
"Increasingly liberalised and connected markets will drive competitionfrom other low-cost countries such as Myanmar in rice and Kenya incoffee.
"Long-term sustainability issues related to climate change, especially in low-lying coastal areas, is another challenge."
Vo Thanh Do, Deputy Director of the Department of Processing and Tradefor Agro-Forestry-Fisheries Products and Salt Production, said despiteefforts to reduce them, post-harvest losses remained high at 20 percentfor fruits and vegetables and 11-13 percent for rice, resulting in highproduction costs and low quality and prices.
Vo NganGiang of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation said demand formany kinds of food, including meat, milk, eggs, rice, wheat, and cerealhad shot up in the global market.
With the globalpopulation rising, an additional one billion tonnes each of cereals andbeef and 460 million tonnes of meat are expected to be needed each yearby 2050. With more people entering the middle class, demand for meat andhigh added-value food products are expected to rise.
Duc said Vietnamese firms had an opportunity to expand their marketsthrough greater regional and global integration through the ASEANEconomic Community, the Vietnam-EU free trade agreement, and the TransPacific Partnership.
It would be hard for Vietnam toincrease exports of many kinds of agricultural products since they hadreached peak output levels, and the firms should instead focus onincreasing their value-addition, he said.
Theyneeded to improve quality management through the entire value chain fromproduction to consumption to meet consumers' food safety demand, hesaid.
Do said the agricultural sector was taking steps torestructure production with a focus on quality, value, efficiency,competitive capacity and protecting the environment. By 2020 theagro-forestry and fisheries sector's value addition was expected toincrease by 20 percent, and post-harvest losses would reduce by 20percent.-VNA
Speaking at a conference in Ho Chi Minh City on May 14, DeputyMinister of Industry and Trade Do Thang Hai said the agricultural sectornot only met local needs with its diverse, quality products but alsoexported to many countries around the world.
Agricultural exports had increased strongly in recent years to more than30 billion USD last year, with Vietnam being among the world's largestexporters of many items like cashew, pepper, rice and coffee, he said.
"However, limited processing capacity, and a lack ofbrands and exports via many intermediaries have resulted in low exportearnings."
Held by the Vietnam Trade PromotionAgency on the sidelines of the first Vietnam International Food IndustryExhibition, the conference sought to come up with measures to add valueto Vietnamese food products, improve their competitiveness, and promotethem globally.
Pham Minh Duc, senior economist atthe World Bank in Vietnam, said fragmented land ownership, qualitycontrol issues, low quality of seeds and other inputs, and poortechniques and misuse of inputs like water and pesticides were among thechallenges faced by the agricultural sector.
"Increasingly liberalised and connected markets will drive competitionfrom other low-cost countries such as Myanmar in rice and Kenya incoffee.
"Long-term sustainability issues related to climate change, especially in low-lying coastal areas, is another challenge."
Vo Thanh Do, Deputy Director of the Department of Processing and Tradefor Agro-Forestry-Fisheries Products and Salt Production, said despiteefforts to reduce them, post-harvest losses remained high at 20 percentfor fruits and vegetables and 11-13 percent for rice, resulting in highproduction costs and low quality and prices.
Vo NganGiang of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation said demand formany kinds of food, including meat, milk, eggs, rice, wheat, and cerealhad shot up in the global market.
With the globalpopulation rising, an additional one billion tonnes each of cereals andbeef and 460 million tonnes of meat are expected to be needed each yearby 2050. With more people entering the middle class, demand for meat andhigh added-value food products are expected to rise.
Duc said Vietnamese firms had an opportunity to expand their marketsthrough greater regional and global integration through the ASEANEconomic Community, the Vietnam-EU free trade agreement, and the TransPacific Partnership.
It would be hard for Vietnam toincrease exports of many kinds of agricultural products since they hadreached peak output levels, and the firms should instead focus onincreasing their value-addition, he said.
Theyneeded to improve quality management through the entire value chain fromproduction to consumption to meet consumers' food safety demand, hesaid.
Do said the agricultural sector was taking steps torestructure production with a focus on quality, value, efficiency,competitive capacity and protecting the environment. By 2020 theagro-forestry and fisheries sector's value addition was expected toincrease by 20 percent, and post-harvest losses would reduce by 20percent.-VNA
