Minister: Find a new direction for Vietnamese agriculture and fisheries

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Vietnam has become the 15th country in the world and the second in Southeast Asia regarding export turnover of agricultural, forestry and fishery products with a production capacity of over 140 million tons/year. In which, many products are leading in the world market such as rice, pepper, cashew nut, seafood... However, the products are mainly exported in raw form, with the value not commensurate.

One of the main reasons is that deep processing to add value is still limited. According to experts, the story of "a good season but the low price" for Vietnamese agricultural and fishery products occurs because the link between farmers, businesses, scientists and the state is not close, leading to unclear market information and production orientation is not suitable for demand. In addition, there are challenges in infrastructure, logistics... that hinder the circulation of fresh and raw agricultural products.

According to Prof. Dr. Vo Tong Xuan, Vietnamese agricultural products have been exported to foreign countries relatively quickly in the past two years. Farmers and processing enterprises have also made much progress. However, the big problem of Vietnamese agricultural and aquatic products today is how to "live" with foreign goods on their land and compete with surrounding countries, especially Thailand.

Professor Xuan pointed out farmers participate in cooperatives to establish large production areas with homogeneous products and raw materials to supply to processing enterprises. But it is scarce for cooperatives to produce well together when 70% of farmers still prefer to do separate businesses with fragmented land.

The problem Prof. Dr. Vo Tong Xuan posed to the provinces in the Mekong Delta is to recalculate which products and goods are considered outstanding, representing the locality to "hit hard" not only in the domestic market but also in the whole country to raise the level of agriculture and fisheries in Vietnam.

Continuing the story of Prof. Dr. Vo Tong Xuan, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan held in his hand two books he had just read, "Think the Opposite, do differently" and "Half Agriculture, half X" to open the about Vietnam's agricultural and aquatic products. The agricultural and fishery linkage chain actors should probably think the opposite and do differently, moving from formal to informal thinking.

“The old road goes on and on. Now we have to find a new way. My grandparents have a saying "When the head is straight. The tail will come in". The story of saving 1kg of mangoes with 1kg of iced tea; Newly exported Ben Tre pomelos are priced at over VND 100,000/kg, and only tens of thousands of VND/kg are left at once,” the Minister expressed.

The minister also posed the problem when Soc Trang province invited businesses to invest in building processing factories. Still, companies would not return if the province could not answer the question of where to buy raw materials. Do farmers keep their credibility? And the province has committed farmers to ensure production under the consumption contract. It is necessary to answer these questions to consider raising the level of agriculture and fisheries in Vietnam.

According to the Minister, when talking about the issue of raising the level of agriculture and fisheries in Vietnam, it is necessary to think about agriculture, which is primarily small, fragmented, spontaneous, and not always linking with farmers smoothly. Each subject needs to eliminate the thinking of buying and selling, buying and selling at a time to form a trust for farmers and play a leading role in creating an ecosystem around businesses and farmers.

To support capital issues in the agricultural sector, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Xuan, Deputy Head of the Agribank Representative Office in the Southwest region, said that by April 2023, the total outstanding loans to the agricultural and aquatic sectors production reached nearly VND 89,000 billion.

Based on the Government's direction on the planning on restructuring agricultural, forestry and fishery production and the direction of relevant ministries and sectors and the requirements of local economic restructuring, Agribank continues to Declare agricultural and rural credit policies, closed loan models linking "4 sides": Banks - farmers - entrepreneurs - scientists. Special priority is given to supporting agricultural projects with high-technology applications, the agricultural mechanization and agro-processing industry development, and organic, circular, and ecological agriculture.