Minister Le Minh Hoan and 4 Deputy Ministers of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development chair the conference

On the morning of June 30, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development held a conference to review the first 6 months of the year and deploy tasks for the last 6 months of 2021.

Mr. Nguyen Van Viet, Director of the Planning Department, said that according to the report of the General Statistics Office, the growth rate of agricultural, forestry and fishery production value in the first 6 months of the year is estimated at 3.84%, of which agriculture increased by 3.71% (livestock increased by 5.73%), forestry increased by 3.98%, and fishery increased by 4.25%.

The GDP growth rate in the first 6 months of the year reached over 3.6%, of which agriculture increased by 3.51%; forestry increased by 3.5; fishery increased by 4.1%.

"Despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the total export turnover of agricultural products in the first 6 months of 2021 still increased sharply, exceeding the set plan, achieving a very high result of 24.23 billion USD, up 28.2% over the same period in 2020, of which main agricultural products were 10.40 billion USD, up 13.3%; aquatic products were 4.05 billion USD, up 12.5%; forestry products were 8.7 billion USD, up 61.5%. Rubber, cashews, vegetables, cassava... are items that increased in both value and output" - Mr. Viet said.

According to Mr. Viet, the export market in the first 6 months of 2021 has shifted when the US is the largest export market with a turnover of about 6.7 billion USD (up 59.8% over the same period in 2020, accounting for 27.9% of export value). China ranked second with an export turnover of 4.75 billion USD (up 32.1% over the same period in 2020 and accounting for 19.6% of total export value).

Mr. Viet said that in the last 6 months and the whole year of 2021, the agricultural sector strives for a GDP growth rate of 3 - 3.2% for the whole sector, and an increase in production value of 3.2 - 3.5%.

"The agricultural sector is also determined to export agricultural products for the whole year to reach 45 billion USD (3 billion USD higher than the Government's assignment) by solutions to impact key export products with prospects and high export value growth potential to compensate for products expected to not reach the annual export turnover target such as main agricultural products of 21.5 billion USD, forestry products and wooden furniture of 14 billion USD, and seafood of 8.5 billion USD" - Mr. Viet said.

According to Mr. Viet, to achieve the goal, the ministry will focus on developing strong export markets and negotiating to remove trade barriers and technical barriers of countries against Vietnam's agricultural exports.

For the US market, it will closely monitor and have timely plans related to applying the Farm Bill in seafood, legal origin of wood and wood products, anti-dumping investigation on honey... continue to negotiate to open the market for agricultural products of both sides.

For the Chinese market, negotiations will be accelerated to open official export channels for agricultural products with export value and potential such as sweet potatoes, durian, chili, passion fruit, grapefruit, coconut, etc.

Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Phung Duc Tien said that statistics from 2011 (reaching 4.24%) to this year, with a value growth rate of 3.84%, agricultural growth has reached a new peak in the particularly difficult context of the COVID-19 pandemic and facing the difficulties of epidemics, natural disasters, and climate change.