The market doors remain open, but the "barriers" behind them are becoming increasingly dense. As technical standards, green requirements, and logistics fluctuations continuously intensify, building a sufficiently strong "immune" system is becoming a prerequisite for Vietnamese agricultural products to maintain their position in the global market.

A notable signal has just been dispatched from the trade promotion sector. The Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency (Ministry of Industry and Trade) stated that it has signed a cooperation agreement with the Trade Facilitation Office Canada (TFO Canada) to deploy the TRISEG Project for the 2026-2030 period, aiming to enhance the adaptability of Vietnamese exporting enterprises.

Behind the thickening "barriers"

Behind this agreement lies an increasingly urgent goal for Vietnam's agricultural sector: enhancing resilience against new trade barriers.

According to the Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency, the project will support small and medium-sized enterprises in key sectors such as coffee, cashews, and pepper to upgrade their capacity to meet importing market standards. Through this, enterprises will have opportunities to participate deeper in the global value chain and promote exports towards a green, sustainable direction.

The support contents all focus on the "bottlenecks" that many exporting enterprises are facing. Accordingly, the program will help enterprises enhance their ability to satisfy technical barriers, while stepping up traceability, digital export, and green governance. In addition to standardizing production processes and raising product quality, enterprises will also gain more opportunities to connect with distribution networks, logistics, and importers in Canada.

Meeting market standards is only half of the equation. Even when overcoming technical barriers, agricultural exporting enterprises still face increasingly unpredictable fluctuations in the global supply chain.

It is no coincidence that these contents are placed in a position of priority. In reality, many importing markets are increasing their requirements for foreign goods, including Vietnamese agricultural products.

For instance, according to the latest note from the Vietnam Trade Office in Kuwait, this country still maintains a large import demand for food, seafood, processed fruits and vegetables, rice, coffee, cashew nuts, beverages, construction materials, and consumer goods. However, the import management trend in 2026 is focusing more heavily on requirements regarding traceability, certificates of origin, food safety, and the ability to meet GCC technical standards.

The above changes demonstrate that the advantage no longer belongs to enterprises that merely have a good source of supply, but is increasingly tilting towards entities that swiftly adapt to new management requirements. According to the Vietnam Trade Office in Kuwait, closely monitoring the regulations of the Kuwaiti Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the Kuwait General Administration of Customs, and this country's food safety authority will become a vital factor for exporting enterprises to maintain and expand market shares.

Yet, meeting market standards is only half of the equation. Even when overcoming technical barriers, enterprises still face increasingly unpredictable fluctuations in the global supply chain, particularly in the maritime transport sector.

In fact, the global container shipping market in June 2026 is showing clear signs of heating up. Freight rates are surging on many major shipping routes, while the peak season has arrived earlier than usual. Along with that, actual shipping capacity continues to contract due to geopolitical factors, port congestion, and adjustments to shipping lines' networks.

These developments are exerting additional cost pressures on exporting enterprises, especially the agricultural commodity group which relies heavily on sea transport. The latest signals indicate that the rate hike cycle is returning, while service quality has not improved commensurately.

Many major shipping lines such as CMA CGM, MSC, Maersk, and Hapag-Lloyd have consecutively applied peak season surcharges (PSS) on Asia-Europe and trans-Pacific routes to capitalize on the market's upward momentum.

The advantage belongs to fast-transforming capacity

Cost pressures do not stop there as fuel prices remain an unpredictable variable in June. As freight rates escalate and the supply chain harbors much instability, the logistics equation is becoming a major challenge for exporting enterprises.

According to the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), for import-export enterprises, particularly in the seafood industry, selecting a transport service should not be based solely on the lowest freight rate. Instead, factors of reliability, the ability to guarantee space on vessels, limited transshipments, and total logistics cost control are becoming increasingly vital.

Faced with such developments, the capacity to forecast and prepare response plans is becoming an important component of competitive edge. VASEP cited recommendations from experts that enterprises need to proactively book spaces early, while building alternative shipping options to minimize risks. This recommendation becomes even more necessary as many analytical organizations still project that freight rates will maintain high levels throughout most of the third quarter of 2026.

However, a strong "immune system" is not created solely by the capacity to withstand logistics shocks. The more critical foundation lies in upgrading quality, increasing value, and constructing a sustainable competitive advantage for products.

“Market changes are forcing agricultural exporting enterprises to abandon the mindset of competing by volume. Added value, quality, traceability, and the level of fulfilling the specific requirements of each market are the factors that will determine the competitiveness of Vietnamese agricultural products in the coming period.” - Mr. Peter Johnson, international expert of UNIDO on agricultural value chains

Discussing with agricultural exporting enterprises in Ho Chi Minh City in mid-June 2026, Mr. Peter Johnson, an international expert of UNIDO on agricultural value chains, argued that this is precisely the direction that Vietnamese agricultural products need to pursue in the coming period.

According to Mr. Peter Johnson, market changes are forcing enterprises to abandon the mindset of competing by volume. Added value, quality, traceability, and the level of fulfilling the specific requirements of each market are the factors that will determine the competitiveness of agricultural products in the coming period.

He also noted that supply chain transparency and climate-friendly production models are rapidly becoming the “ticket” for goods to access high-value markets. Enterprises that invest early in these areas will have many opportunities to create a gap with competitors.

But competitiveness only proves effective when placed in the right market. Quite a few enterprises, after investing heavily in quality and standards, still face difficulties because they chase markets that are attractive in name but unsuitable for their actual capacity.

The agricultural export game is changing. Instead of chasing the largest markets, Vietnamese enterprises must prove their capacity to meet the increasingly stringent demands of target markets.

According to Dr. Rajendra Adhikari (University of Queensland), this is one of the common mistakes of many exporting enterprises. He pointed out that market scale does not always correlate directly with opportunity. This is because a smaller market that aligns with the product and the enterprise's fulfillment capabilities can yield higher efficiency.

The above recommendation also shows that the export game is changing. Instead of chasing the largest markets, enterprises must prove their capacity to meet the increasingly stringent demands of target markets.

Signals from Canada, Kuwait, and the shipping market reflect that agricultural exports are entering a new phase of competition, where the advantage belongs to enterprises that transform quickly in response to the increasingly stringent requirements of the market. As trade "barriers" rise, building a strong "immune" system for the entire export chain becomes a prerequisite to retain market share and elevate the position of Vietnamese agricultural products in the global market.

Source: Vnbusiness