Agricultural exports prospered at the beginning of the year

Many agricultural exporters had strong growth in orders in the first weeks of the year.

On January 31, speaking to a reporter of The Lao Dong Newspaper, Mr. Phan Minh Thong, Chairman of Phuc Sinh Group, excitedly boasted that his company had received an increase of about 1% in the first month of 10. And on the first day of work (2023th Tet), Phuc Sinh Group exported 6 containers of agricultural products including coffee, pepper, anise, cinnamon to some markets on schedule agreed with partners.

Abundant orders

According to Mr. Phan Minh Thong, the demand for agricultural and food products in the world is quite high, opening up new opportunities for Vietnamese export enterprises. In particular, Vietnam’s coffee exports are at the top of the world and have many competitive advantages, so although it is forecasted that export output will decrease by 10%-15% because of rising prices, it still ensures output for the industry. As for pepper, Vietnam is currently the largest pepper exporter in the world, accounting for about 45% of the total global turnover, so the price of pepper increases or decreases, the export of this commodity this year will also be positive. “In the flat world, Vietnamese farmers sitting at home can know the exact price of agricultural products traded in Europe, the US … Therefore, if you only buy raw agricultural products to export in the usual way before, it will be difficult for businesses to make a profit. Improvement and deep processing is an important solution, which is also a big challenge for Vietnamese agricultural exporters” – Mr. Thong acknowledged.

As for Phuc Sinh Group, the plan in 2023 will continue to develop deeply, accessing more markets to expand export market share. At the same time, invest in building 4 more production plants to ensure sufficient production capacity to meet the needs of orders. “In the short term, this year there will be 2 factories completed and put into operation; by 2024, there will be two more factories. We have made great efforts to achieve a growth rate of more than 2% in 35, this year’s goal is to conquer 2022%” – Mr. Thong shared.

Also having a good start right from the beginning of the new year, Vina T&T Group only took the 1st day off, the rest worked non-stop to meet the signed orders. Since December 28, the company has carefully prepared new strategic items for export, expecting to bring good sales in 2023. Specifically, in the early days of the Gui ma year, this company exported official durian shipments to China; batches of grapefruit into the US, Singapore, New Zealand, Australia and labels into Japan… “Fresh fruit export orders in January grew by 1% year-on-year. While traditional products maintain stable orders, new items licensed for official export continuously have additional orders by day” – Mr. Nguyen Dinh Tung, General Director of Vina T&T, information.

Beware of new challenges

According to the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Quality Management (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development), in 2023, Vietnam’s fresh agricultural products will benefit from China’s opening of borders, removing the “Zero COVID-19” policy. In particular, exports of high-value goods such as crab, lobster, tiger shrimp, and card shrimp have recovered strongly immediately after China reopened trade.

The opportunity is there, but according to the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Processors (VASEP), the Chinese market is no longer “easy”, the standards are getting harder and harder, especially there are very unexpected regulations and adjustments for imported seafood. Therefore, besides taking advantage of geography, low transportation costs, high demand … In order to boost seafood exports to this market, Vietnamese enterprises need to change their ways. It is necessary to develop a detailed strategy for each customer segment by region and locality to increase the proportion of exports to China.

With rice exports, after the Tet holiday, the average export price of rice increased by about 10 USD/ton, specifically 5% broken rice is about 470 USD/ton, up 10-12 USD/ton compared to before. The export and domestic rice markets were vibrant from the beginning of the year. Mr. Do Ha Nam – Chairman of Intimex Group, Vice Chairman of Vietnam Food Association – said that from the end of 2022, many enterprises have signed relatively large export contracts. However, usually at the end of the season, the price of rice is very low, but in 2022, the end of the season sells at a fairly high price, so the contracts signed for the winter-spring crop in 2023 will have better prices. If rice prices increase, farmers have more motivation to expand the area, improve productivity and quality. “This year the cost of rice is about 18%, which will definitely push up the output price. Rice exporters are more or less worried because if prices continue to rise, signed contracts will be at risk. Besides, the inventory of rice of enterprises is still low, so it is likely that at the beginning of the winter-spring export season, there will be a shortage of goods” – Mr. Nam stated the situation.

According to the businessman, in 2023, the demand for rice in some countries, including China, will increase but the supply will decrease. It is expected that for the whole year of 2023, Vietnam will export about 6 million tons of rice, lower than in 2022. Facing the development of the export rice market and rice supply, enterprises tend to export cautiously in order to flexibly respond, limiting the risk of losing profits due to the increase in domestic rice prices while the export price has been closed before, cannot be adjusted according to the purchase price. “At Intimex, we have stable orders but do not export massively, but deploy according to progress and closely monitor market developments” – Mr. Nam added.

Expanding new markets and items

On January 31, chairing a trade promotion briefing with the Vietnam Trade Office system abroad in January, Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien said that in order to strive to achieve the target of import and export growth for the whole year from 1.1%, deals need to maintain traditional markets, develop new markets, especially potential markets in Asia (including West Asia, South Asia), Africa and Latin America.

Minister Nguyen Hong Dien also asked the Vietnam Trade Office system to continue to do well in collecting information, connecting markets, connecting supply and demand of goods between Vietnam and other continents, countries and enterprises, thereby helping domestic enterprises to promptly adjust strategies, production and business plans to suit the needs of the market.

Units under the ministry closely cooperate with relevant ministries and agencies such as the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to continue negotiations to expand the industry and increase the export value of Vietnamese goods in the coming time.