Trade surplus of agricultural products nearly doubled compared to 2021

At the press conference on September 5, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Phung Duc Tien announced positive information regarding the import and export of agricultural products in the first 8 months of 2022.

The agricultural and rural sectors have implemented plans in August 2022 during which weather conditions developed complicatedly, but the disease outbreaks on livestock and poultry were kept under control. Additionally, the price of materials and input materials for agricultural production such as petroleum, fertilizer, animal feed and son on has controlled the increase of prices, with the price of some inputs decreasing slightly.

Accordingly, export turnover is estimated at nearly 4.4 billion USD, which is an increase of 32% compared to August 2021, 0.3% compared to July 2022. Namely, main agricultural products account for over 1.8 billion USD, forest products account for 1.4 billion USD, seafood products account for 893.8 million USD and animal husbandry products account for 41.6 million USD.

In the first eight months of 2022, export turnover is estimated at nearly 36.3 billion USD, equivalent to an increase of 13.1% over the same period in 2021. Meanwhile, import turnover is estimated at 29.9 billion USD, an increase of 3.9% compared to the same period in 2021. As a result, the trade surplus of agricultural products reached over 6.3 billion USD after the first 8 months of 2022, up by 94.6% compared to the first 8 months of 2021.

In face of market difficulties, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has coordinated with Embassies, Trade Counselors, and Agricultural Counselors to enhance online promotion and advertising for products that have been officially exported to markets in association with the Government's and Ministry's diplomatic activities to major markets including: China, the United States, the EU, Russia, Brazil; as well as effectively reach other potential markets such as Japan, Korea, Asean, Australia, New Zealand, and the Middle East.

During August 2022, Vietnam has managed to synthesize 58 notices of draft regulations on SPS belonging to the World Trade Organization state members; handle 2 EU warnings; continue to remove obstacles in relation to the provisions under Order 248, and Order 249.

In the process of reshaping the agricultural production mindset into that of an agricultural economy, many inefficient rice areas have been actively converted to other crops by the farmers and localities, and aquaculture production has been more effective overall.

In addition, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development guides farmers and localities to encourage the application of organic production, reducing the intensive use of natural resources and input materials.

Most notably, some localities in the Mekong Delta have paid special attention to guiding experienced farmers and successfully applied the technical process of cropping, so that the economic efficiency of 5 types of fruit trees including dragon fruit, mango, rambutan, durian, and longan has increased by 1.5 to 2 times compared to the main crop.

In addition, the management of seed quality has received much attention from many localities, with the percentage of planted forests under seed quality control reaching 85%.

Many localities and forest owners have focused on developing forest management and protection plans; So far, 340,350 hectares of forest across 31 localities have been granted forest certificates. Revenue from forest environmental services also increased rapidly, reaching 80.2% of the annual plan.

Regarding solutions in the immediate future to achieve the target of agricultural product exports reaching 50 billion USD, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Phung Duc Tien said that the first step is to promote restructuring, focusing on enhancing the agricultural economy, increasing output as well as adding value to products.

The Deputy Minister also emphasized the investment in science and technology, advanced application in production. In addition, Mr. Phung Duc Tien also drew attention to the disease prevention for plants and animals in the last few months of the year as well as creating favorable conditions and environment for businesses to continue to expand investment in the agricultural sector.

Farmers' pigs are not test subjects for the vaccine against African swine fever

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development confirmed that was no case of using farmers' pigs as test subjects for the African swine fever vaccine trial and the number of pigs that died was due to uncontrolled vaccination.

Uncontrolled vaccination

Many reporters questioned the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development about the death of pigs after vaccination against African swine fever on September 5. Deputy Minister Phung Duc Tien and Mr. Nguyen Van Long, Acting Director of the Department of Animal Health have given detailed answers to this concern.

Firstly, Mr. Nguyen Van Long affirmed that the research, evaluation, testing, and circulation permit for the African Swine Fever vaccine was extremely strict, in compliance with the provisions of the law.

"This vaccine is not only evaluated by the research agency but also by many independent domestic and international experts", emphasized Mr. Nguyen Van Long. He added that all batches of vaccines were inspected for quality, sterility, safety and effectiveness before entering circulation

More specifically, Mr. Nguyen Van Long informed that from the beginning of July 2022 to August 26, Navetco Company provided a total of 23,344 doses of vaccine to 20 provinces and cities.

4,494 doses of the aforementioned vaccine were reserved for local use under the direction of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development; 17,750 doses were supplied without supervision by veterinary agencies, and against the guidelines of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Department of Animal Health; 1,100 of the remaining doses were unused.

"The pigs vaaccinated following the guidelines of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Department of Animal Health have developed normally, and the mortality rate after vaccination is 0.6%, which is the normal level compared to other veterinary vaccines", said Mr. Nguyen Van Long.

For the 1,392 reported cases of pigs that died after vaccination in Binh Dinh, Phu Yen and Quang Ngai, Mr. Long said that the subjective cause was the supply and sale of vaccines directly to grassroots doctors and farmers for self-vaccination.

Navetco Company specifically recommended to vaccinate pigs from 8 to 10 weeks old, but farmers have vaccinated on all types of pigs including sows, boars, piglets among others.

Another reason for the death of pigs after vaccination was that farmers self-vaccinate without supervision of veterinary authorities and Navetco Company. The grassroots veterinary system and farmers do not strictly follow the hygiene and disinfection measures; they shared needles and caused the spread of ASF virus in the field during the vaccination process.

Not test subjects

An opinion at the press conference believed that despite the successful research, the ASF vaccine is still in the testing process and consequently farmers' pigs were used as test subjects.

Deputy Minister Phung Duc Tien affirmed that the order of research, testing and trial for this vaccine has sufficient legal basis. In addition, the instructions for use are also given in detail, but the uncontrolled vaccination has led to the mass deaths of pigs.

"This means that farmers' pigs were not used as test subjects", the Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development emphasized and added that Navetco Company has a policy to support 2 million VND for each sow and boar that died; and 1 million dong for other types of pigs.

Why has China not recognized Vietnam's durian growing area codes?

Regarding a reporter's question about the fact that the General Administration of Customs of China has completed an online inspection of Vietnam's packaging facilities and durian growing area codes, but has yet to produce results, Mr. Huynh Tan Dat answered that, the Department of Plant Protection cooperated with the Chinese side to set up 3 online inspection teams from August 12.

"The inspection process by the General Administration of Customs of China was carried out on 29 packaging facilities, 106 growing area codes and ended on August 26", Mr. Huynh Tan Dat informed the press.

A representative from the Department of Plant Protection reported that the Chinese side appreciated Vietnam's support to complete the inspection process. Regarding the results, the Deputy Director of the Department of Plant Protection said that the General Administration of Customs of China has assigned Nanning Customs to be in charge of developing the results report.

"Since August 26, the Department of Plant Protection and Nanning Customs have continuously exchanged information to resolve difficulties and problems in the process of completing the report", Mr. Huynh Tan Dat added.

Sharing additional details on the inspection and evaluation process of the Chinese side, Mr. Dat said that Vietnam's durian packaging facilities and area codes need to be further improved in many aspects, from management and care to pest control, plant protection data management as well s post-harvest processing and packaging.