The Agricultural Products Market Transformation and Development Department (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development) and the Vietnamese Organic Agriculture Association recently co-organized a forum on the exportation of organic agricultural products from Vietnam.
According to Nguyên Quôc Toan, head of the Department, the export of agricultural, forestry and aquatic products from Vietnam reached a record high of 40 billion USD in 2018. “However, the surface area devoted to organic farming and biological agricultural production is still small in Vietnam. 45 million hectares are dedicated to biological agriculture in the world, but Vietnam only uses 77,000 hectares. The global market for biological agriculture has reached 90 billion dollars while Vietnam only exports around 10 million dollars of organic agricultural products.”
In recent years, many companies in the country have been involved in the production and consumption of biological agricultural products, often destined to exportation, because foreign markets can more easily afford the price of quality products. For most Vietnamese consumers, the prices of these products are too high.
In order to start producing organically, companies must first prepare the land, which can take up to 3 to 5 years. Given the difficulty of finding suitable land for organic production, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development must have a clear plan for the areas of organic production, creating favorable conditions for the companies that are willing to invest.
