Vietnam - Australia dialogues on win-win agriculture trade activities

The forum was co-chaired by Deputy Minister Le Quoc Doanh of Vietnam Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) and Secretary of Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment Andrew Metcalfe. In addition, representatives from the Embassy of Vietnam to Australia, the Embassy of Australia to Vietnam, and related agricultural departments attended the event.

At the forum, the two sides reported on the results of working groups following the second forum, which was held in 2018. Also, it was an occasion to review bilateral cooperation in the field of agriculture, discussed many issues to promote the argiculture trade including the approach and opening of markets for products of animal and plant origin, supporting policies and techniques; results as well as proposals for cooperation in fisheries and forestry in the coming time; win-win projects to promote two-way trade in some specific products.

Over the past time, the relationship between Vietnam and Australia has been thrived with several partnership action plans signed including the agricultural field, remarking the good bilateral relations between the two countries.

Despite continuing impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, the total export turnover of Vietnam’s agricultural industry in the first 6 months of 2021 still increased sharply, exceeding the set plan, reaching a high result of USD 24.23 billion, up 28.2% year on year.

According to the Secretary of Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment Andrew, Vietnam is considered an important partner of Australia with a two-way trade turnover reaching USD 2.4 million in 2019 and 2020. Australian consumers were introduced to and enjoy several high-quality products from Vietnam including seafood, coffee, and cashew among others.

Since the launch of the first agricultural forum in 2016, three working groups proved their role as an effective channel to enhance the cooperation and exchange between the two sides.

The Australian secretary also expressed his happiness to see that two countries are making efforts to have a better approach to the market for some agricultural products including Australian peach and nectarine imported to the Vietnam market. He also stressed that the Australian sides will help Vietnam to seek a way to remain the biological safety of shell-on shrimp to meet the export requirements of the former as well as promote cooperation with Vietnam in the export of agriculture products to be recognized in the Asian region.

Australian Secretary said that the agricultural trade plays a particularly important role to promote the development of two-way trade. When Vietnam can export seafood, tropical veggies, cashew, and coffee to Australia, Australia exports dairy, vegetables, feedstocks, and beef to Vietnam. In general, there is no direct head-to-head competition between Vietnam and Australia in agriculture trade, in case, it should be mutual support in the field with a lot of room for development.

In terms of the approach to meat and seafood markets, the Australian sides mentioned eight detailed action plans to promote the effective exchange, laboratory test with the most advanced technological appliance to limit the risks of diseases in shrimp and share the experience with Vietnam. Australia will support Vietnam to export shrimp to the country, however, the latter must ensure biosecurity safety following Australian standards and proposed to have their kangaroo products accessing the Vietnamese market.

In response to the proposal, a representative from the Department of Animal Health said that deer and kangaroo products are the new kinds with no general traits as similar as cow and swine products, thereby, Vietnam needs direct examination and assessment in the coming future.

In the field of approaching to cultivation market, in the first six months of the year, the export increased by 6% while export from the opposite direction has witnessed impressive growth with the total export doubled, in which export of other products climbed by half to four.

Vietnam sides also proposed that Australia can facilitate the export of passion fruits and cut flowers as Vietnam replaced glycoside with other four substitute active ingredients to protect flowers against germs.

Australian side hailed the significance of cooperation in improving trade arrangements relating to irradiation of plant products and strive to win-win deals, stressing the top priority of Australia is exporting peach and nectarine to Vietnam as soon as possible and help Vietnamese passion fruits to enter the Australian market.

Relating to science, technology, and policy, the two sides mentioned five projects that needed funds to promote the agriculture of Vietnam and Australia as well as capacity-enhancing projects relating to agriculture, agricultural solutions, and diagnosis.

As Australia supported Vietnam to organize a community communication workshop against IUU in Quang Ngai, the situation of illegal fishing by fishermen decreased significantly.

MARD proposed to enhance cooperation to share experiments and promote technical support programs to help Vietnam tackle salinity, water regulation, restructure, and sustainable development of the Mekong Delta region.

In conclusion, Deputy Minister Le Quoc Doanh said Vietnam wants Australia to promote market opening for some Vietnamese products including passion fruit. In addition, he hoped that the two sides would continue to share information on fruit in the export fruit regions of Australia.

"In particular, it is recommended that the Australian side consider so that Vietnam can use new chemicals to treat pre-germination of cut flowers, replacing glyphoside that has been stopped," Deputy Minister Le Quoc said.

He also suggested that the specialized quarantine agencies of the two sides continue to organize meetings, working groups and techniques to solve problems.

“Vietnam is very interested in digital transformation and application of new technologies in agricultural governance. The aim is for Vietnamese agricultural products to meet safety and transparency requirements for 100 million people in the country and for export," the Deputy Minister emphasized and proposed Australia's support.