Although agricultural, forestry and fishery exports in 2024 achieved many important results, challenges still remain. Experts hope that in 2025, exports will have many new things, but the most important thing is to improve quality.

More than 1,000 notifications on food safety

Despite achieving many results in exporting agricultural, forestry and fishery products, in 2024, our country's export markets will continuously announce changes in regulations on food safety and animal and plant disease safety (SPS) in importing agricultural, forestry and fishery products.

Speaking about this issue, Mr. Ngo Xuan Nam, Deputy Director of the Vietnam SPS Office, said: We are very proud of Vietnam's agriculture, however, to enter demanding markets is a problem and a process of effort. If we want to export, we must not only rely on the quantity and quality of products but also meet the regulations of the markets. To have products, we have to spend many years negotiating and making efforts of many units to achieve the regulations of the new market opening and exporting products.

With the goal of Vietnam becoming the kitchen of the world, we have tried to increase output but cannot forget about quality. These two issues must always go hand in hand.

The export situation in 2024, as well as many previous years, we assess as a general trend in the world. Most members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) as well as other markets have many regulations on product imports. Not all regulations are strict, or some countries have relaxed regulations... But how do we access food safety regulations, this is mandatory. That is why the WTO has established a food safety committee.

According to statistics from the Vietnam SPS Office, in 2024, markets issued 1,029 food safety notifications, on average the SPS office had to issue 3 notifications per day, some notifications had hundreds of pages. Regulations on pesticide residues for other products, such as dragon fruit, coffee... are all different. For example, in November 2024, Japan had 10 notifications on pesticides, some of which had reduced active ingredients by up to 10 times. The total number of notifications, mainly from WTO members with whom we are trading such as the EU, Korea, Japan and China, also had some changes.

Before that change, the Prime Minister issued a decision to direct the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, ministries, branches and localities to immediately implement to ensure compliance with regulations to facilitate export of products. After that, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development approved the implementation plan of the SPS Project (Decision 2998/QD-BNN-CCPT), and so far, most localities have taken timely action.

Although market requirements have changed, we have taken timely action. Most businesses and farmers have met the requirements, only a few have not yet approached or fully understood them, but this is the "bad apple spoiling the barrel", we need to propagate, continue to mobilize and require these cases to change to meet the regulations in production and export.

Focus on the "health" of the industry

According to Mr. Nguyen Quang Hieu, Deputy Director of the Plant Protection Department (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development), we are facing some difficulties and challenges in opening the market, especially when many countries are tending to raise quality standards. This is an inevitable trend in the development process.

On our side, due to small-scale, fragmented production and a loose supply chain, meeting new market requirements will be more difficult and take more time. In addition, there is the ability to compete in terms of logistics costs, infrastructure, and cold storage. The big challenge in the coming period lies in growth. After 3 years of "hot" growth, it can be seen that the risk of violating regulations is looming ahead as businesses compete to expand production scale, increase export volume, and loosen quality control. While just a few small violations can affect the entire shipment, even the industry.

“Therefore, in 2025, we should not expect too much from the growth of the fruit industry but should focus on strengthening the “health” of the industry; finding solutions for sustainable development, improving quality… It is time not to be subjective with the increase in turnover of several dozen percent like in the past years, but we do not pay attention to the fact that our competitors are not standing still. They are also always improving their position in the market, competing with Vietnam. Therefore, on the business side, we need to pay more attention to sustainability, the impact of climate change, and increase certification of social and environmental responsibility…”, Mr. Hieu said.

In the field of cultivation, the challenges in 2025, according to Mr. Nguyen Quoc Manh, Deputy Director of the Department of Cultivation (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development), will be very unpredictable, especially the issue of natural disasters and climate change. To proactively respond to such difficulties, the cultivation industry will always pay attention and provide early guidance on prevention. According to the forecast of the National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting, in 2025, drought and saltwater intrusion in the Mekong Delta will be more severe than in 2024.

The Department of Crop Production has sent a document to localities to report and take timely measures, especially in directing production. In addition, localities in the Mekong Delta will focus on implementing the Project "Sustainable development of one million hectares of high-quality and low-emission rice cultivation associated with green growth in the Mekong Delta by 2030". For other crops, rubber and coffee will be implemented to fully comply with the European anti-deforestation regulations (EUDR), the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Department of Crop Production will provide instructions to localities as soon as possible. For fruit trees, the Central and Northern provinces will focus on extending the harvest time. In addition, focus on crop production for low-emission crops.

Must set a record for quality

Deputy Director of the SPS Vietnam Office, Ngo Xuan Nam, shared: Honestly, we at the SPS Office are very worried, just hoping that there will be no warnings every day. However, in reality, there are warnings almost constantly. We have reached a record, there has been a breakthrough, but how can we develop sustainably? Our Earth has a certain capacity, we cannot run forever without knowing where to stop. With the goal of Vietnam becoming the kitchen of the world, we have tried to increase output but cannot forget about quality. These two issues must always go hand in hand.

In particular, farmers - the direct production force - need to pay special attention to this issue. If we are too absorbed in growth, we will not be careful and fall into the trap of chasing output. Regarding the trend in the coming time, we are perfecting and upgrading the SPS in the ASEAN region, SPS with China, SPS with Canada...

“Most of the SPS contents are increasingly improved, food safety will be the story that countries are increasingly improving in quality. This will be an inevitable trend of the world. The two trains must run parallel to each other, it cannot be otherwise. Hopefully in 2025, exports will have many new things but the most important thing is to improve quality”, Mr. Nam expressed his wish.

Source: Rural Economic Newspaper