VN-Japan agricultural co-operation strengthened in 2020-2024

Under the co-operation, traning programmes to improve production-management capacity of farmers, co-operatives and small businesses would also be enhanced in the period, said Vietnamese Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuong at the 5th online high-level dialogue on December 12 with Japanese Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan Kotaro Nogami.

During the meeting, the two sides deeply re-evaluated the results achieved in the previous period and on that basis, they agreed to jointly conduct the mid-term and long-term vision of Viet Nam - Japan agricultural co-operation during the period of 2020-2024.

The co-operation will focus on irrigation works, infrastructure supporting the agricultural value chain, environmental protection, climate change adaptation, promoting investment from private sector, applying advanced technologies, training human resources and promoting localities’ potentials.

Assessing the potential of Japanese partners, Cuong said that Japan was a country with advanced technologies of agricultural processing and a hub for training human resources for agricultural development.

Business co-operation

On the sideline of the meeting, the two ministers had attended and gave opening speeches at the Viet Nam - Japan Public - Private Agricultural Co-operation Forum with the participation of 100 enterprises from both countries.

Cuong said “The Government of Viet Nam always accompanies and creates opportunities for businesses to develop.”

Viet Nam wished to attract and co-operate with enterprises to invest in and apply high technology for agricultural production, processing, preservation and distribution of agricultural products and foodstuffs, he said.

He expected that Japanese businesses to create joint-venture partners, close and trustworthy links with Vietnamese businesses and farmers, Cuong said.

“The result of the co-operation between the two sides is not only economic efficiency, but more importantly, the values of friendship, the sharing of technology as well as the cultural interference between the two countries,” he said.

Also at the forum, Nguyen Thi Lan Huong, chairman of Viet Phuc Production and Import-Export Joint Stock Company said the company was co-operating with the Japanese partner to export sweet potatoes to Japan.

Only in the Central Highland province of Dak Lak, Huong’s company now had about 6,000 ha planting sweet potatoes. 

Huong said the company started to co-operate with the Japanese partner to grow Japanese sweet potatoes in Viet Nam since 2016. The Japanese partner had transferred varieties, farming processes and techniques to the company.

The company had just completed the trial production in the Central Highlands region with a minimum yield of 30-35 tonnes per ha, especially, the yield in some places was up to 40 tonnes per ha, she said.

“The quality of the sweet potatoes is assessed to be equal,” she said.

Evaluating the potential of agricultural co-operation with Japan, Huong said the two countries could exchange many advantageous agricultural products in the coming time.

Additionally, Viet Nam needed Japanese technologies in cultivation, processing and post-harvest preservation, she said.

Currently, the transfer price of Japanese technologies was often expensive compared to the capabilities of Vietnamese small and medium enterprises, she said.

Therefore, through this forum, we hope that the Governments of the two countries would find out solutions to the policy framework and incentives so that the technologies could be transferred more smoothly, she added.

Meanwhile, Le Duc Huy, Vice Chairman of the Board of Members, Deputy General Director of Simexco Dak Lak - the Viet Nam's largest coffee bean exporter to Japan today, said, at first, when working with Japanese partners, it was difficult to persuade them to import, but if we committed to comply with the production process and traceability, there would always be new orders with good prices.

They always required that today's quality of our products must be better compared to the previous days, Huy said.

Huy also added that there was a very new trend in coffee export co-operation to Japan.

The trend was Japanese coffee roasters were looking opportunities to enter Viet Nam. This was an opportunity for us to increase the value of Vietnamese coffee, he said.