BUSINESS RESULTS REPORT OF THE MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT IN AUGUST, 2020 

I. RESULTS IN AUGUST AND 8 MONTHS:

1. The direction and administration of the Ministry:

Accumulated to August 25, 2020, the Ministry has completed 57 tasks (8 overdue tasks) out of 168 assigned tasks, the remaining 111 tasks are being implemented within the assigned time; Answering to 129 questions proposed by voters before the 9th Session, XIV National Assembly. Submitted to the Government, the Prime Minister issued 06 Decrees, 01 Decision, 09 Circulars; simplified 15/34 administrative procedures, reached 44.11%; Cost savings: VND 77.4 billion/year, reached the cost-cutting ratio: 72.80%.

2. Production and business results:

a) Cultivation: 

- Paddy: As of August 20, 2020, the whole country cultivated 6.71 million hectares, decreased 135 thousand hectares over the same period. In which, the North provinces cultivated 2.32 million ha, reduced -1.5%; The South provinces cultivated 4.39 million hectares, fell -2.2%. The harvested area was approximately 4.0 million ha, the yield was nearly 25.9 million tons of paddy.

- Vegetables and crops: As of mid-August, the whole country cultivated 857.3 thousand hectares of maize, decreased 2.9% over the same period last year; 94.4 thousand hectares of sweet potatoes, declined 6.4%; 38.5 thousand hectares of soybeans, reduced 1.9%; 153.6 thousand hectares of peanuts, fell 3.5%; 914.5 thousand hectares of vegetables and beans, dropped 0.5%.

b) Husbandry: According to the General Statistics Office, in August, the herd of cows increased around 3.0% over the same period in 2019; the Poultry herd grew 4.5%; The herd of pigs decreased 4.0% over the same period in 2019.

c) Forestry: Generally, in 8 months, the acreage of the newly planted forest area of ​​the country was approximately 133.1 thousand ha, declined 2.0% over the same period last year; The exploited wood production was around 10,490,0 thousand m³, increased 1.6%; The exploited firewood production was 12.9 million steres, reduced 0.2% (1).

d) Fishery: In August, the fishery production was 741.8 thousand tons, increased 1.3% compared to August 2019. Accumulated in eight months, the total production was nearly 5.39 million tons, increased 1.5% over the same period in 2019. Specifically:

- Exploit: In 8 months, the production reached 2.57 million tons, grew 1.8% over the same period in 2019; of which, sea exploitation reached 2.46 million tons, increased 1.9%.

- Aquaculture: The estimated production was 2.82 million tons, increased 1.2% over the same period. In particular, the fish production was nearly 2 million tons, equivalent to the same period (Shutchi catfish - Pangasius hypophthalmus reached 839.2 thousand tons, decreased 14.1%); The shrimp production was 539 thousand tons, increased 2.9% (the Giant tiger prawn - Penaeus monodon reached 193.6 thousand tons, increased 4.7%; The White Shrimp - Lipopenaeus vanname reached 271.4 thousand tons, grew 3.5%).

3. Import and export:

In eight months, the total import-export turnover of agricultural, forestry and fishery products was nearly 46 billion USD, of which, the export turnover was 26.1 billion USD, decreased 0.9% over the same period in 2019; The import turnover was around 19.9 billion USD, declined 2.5%; The trade deficit was approximately 6.2 billion USD, increased 4.9% over the same period in 2019.

a) Export: In August, the export turnover was 3.6 billion USD, increased 3.5% compared to July 2020; In which, the export value of the main agricultural products were generally 1.6 billion USD (grew 7.8%), the main forestry products were over 1.2 billion USD (raised 1.0%), the Fishery and Aquaculture products reached 800 million USD ( increased 0.5%) and the husbandry products reached 31 million USD (decreased 18.4%) (2), ...Generally, in the eight months, the export turnover of agriculture, forestry and fishery products was 26.15 billion USD, decreased 0.9% over the same period in 2019. In which, the main agricultural product group was nearly 12 billion USD, decreased 3.2 %; The husbandry products was 250 million USD, decreased 25.0%; The Fishery and Aquaculture products was 5.2 billion USD, decreased 5.3%; The main Forestry products reached over 7.8 billion USD, increased 10.3%.

b) Import: In 8 months, the import turnover of AFF products was 19.9 billion USD, decreased 2.5% over the same period in 2019. In which, the import value of main agricultural, forestry and fishery products was 16 billion USD, reduced 5.2%.

4. Irrigation, natural disaster prevention: The Ministry has closely monitored the weather situation, promptly warned localities about hot weather, heavy rain, floods, landslides and the danger of thunderstorms, cyclones….Accumulated 8 months, the total loss included 121,852 ha of damaged paddy and crops; 31,889 dead cattle and poultry. Estimated, the economic loss was 4,030 billion VND.

5. Capital construction investment: In the first 8 months of the year, the disbursement volume was approximately 5,919.7 billion VND, equaling 42.6% of the year plan.

6. Rural development and new rural construction: Currently, the whole country had 57 cooperative unions and 16,272 agricultural cooperatives, increased 03 unions and 909 cooperatives compared to December 31, 2019; 34,418 farms and 33,418 cooperative groups; 5,350 communes (60.23%) met the new rural standards, increased 38 communes (0.4%) compared to July 2020; 178 communes met the advanced new rural standards, the national average reached 16.3 criteria/commune; 150/664 district-level units in 46 provinces and cities met the new rural standard.

7. Other tasks:

- Promulgating the agricultural and rural development plan in 2021 and the 5-year plan of 2021 - 2025; Evaluating the results of the sector restructuring in the period of 2017 - 2019, developing the sector restructuring plan for the period of 2021 – 2025; Reviewing the list of medium-term public investment projects 2021 - 2025.

- The Irrigation and Disaster Prevention Planning completed the selection of consultants and started implementing the Planning; The Forestry Planning and the 02 Fishery Planning were organizing a tender to choose consultants.

- Completing the enterprise rating and financial supervision; Evaluating the performance of state-owned enterprises and state-owned enterprises under the Ministry; Requiring enterprises under the Ministry to develop restructuring plans for the period 2021 – 2025.

- Thus far, compared to the same period in 2019, 63/63 provinces and municipalities have developed 1,627 chains (increased 207 chains), 2,346 products (increased 808 products) and 2,989 chain-controlled product selling locations (reduced 298 locations).

II. SEPTEMBER OBJECTIVES:

1. Cultivation: Closely monitoring the production situation, guiding localities on the season, seed structure and new technical advances applied in the production. Directing the harvesting of Summer-Autumn paddy; Cultivating Winter-Spring paddy in the Northern provinces; Directing the production of Autumn-Winter paddy and Winter-Spring paddy in the Southern regions to guarantee the output reached 800 - 820 thousand hectares.

2. Husbandry: Directing the implementation of measures to control epidemics; Guiding localities to apply biosafety breeding measures to re-herd and expand the scale of pig herds in areas that have not yet had epidemics and have sufficient conditions for biosafety breeding; Coordinating with ministries, branches, localities, and enterprises in implementing market development solutions; controlling, stabilizing and reducing pork prices.

3. Fishery: Focusing on developing key aquaculture and other high economic value aquaculture species in the direction of increasing commercial value and developing sustainably; Implementing synchronously and effectively the recommendations of the European Union for Vietnam to remove the "yellow card" and work towards sustainable marine fisheries development; Preparing for the 4th meeting chaired by the Deputy Prime Minister Tring Dinh Dung; Organizing inspection teams on the implementation of Directive No. 45 in localities.

4. Forestry: Concentrating on directing the implementation of measures to restore production, processing and export of the forest products; Directing localities to organize the implementation of the Forest Fire Fighting and Prevention Plan 2020; Implementing the Forest Protection and Development Plan 2020; Strictly managing the quality of seedlings.

5. Irrigation, natural disaster prevention: Closely monitoring weather changes; Promptly disseminating information to authorities and citizens to actively prevent natural disasters; Ensuring the safety of agricultural production and irrigation construction; Coordinating with localities in urgently overcoming consequences caused by natural disasters.

6. Processing and market development: Closely coordinating with Ministries, Departments and Branches to monitor the price movements, the supply and demand of essential agricultural commodities in the country; Regularly updating the developments as well as the situation of the key markets affected by the disease; Strictly monitoring the export of agricultural products through the border gates with China.

7. Food quality and safety management: Continuing to solve the market problems in order to create favourable conditions for the exports of agricultural and fishery and aquaculture products in the context of the Covid-19 epidemic.

8. Rural development and new rural construction: Implementing the Scheme to develop 15,000 cooperatives; Continuing to organize the recognition of communes met new rural standards; Appraising districts which completed new rural construction, submitted to the Prime Minister.

9. Capital construction investment: Closely monitoring the weather changes, droughts, water shortages, saltwater intrusion, and landslides in the Central region and the Mekong Delta; Promptly cooperating with authorities to actively prevent natural disasters; directing the assurance of the agricultural production and irrigation construction; Coordinating with localities in urgently overcoming consequences caused by natural disasters.

10. The assigned tasks about developing Schemes and legal documents: Issuing 01 Circular; The Department of Livestock closely followed the progress of approving the livestock development strategy for the period 2020-2030, with a vision to 2040.

11. Plans: Completing the plan for public investment in the period of 2021-2025; Adjusting the mid-term capital plan for 2016-2020; Developing the sector restructuring plan for the period 2021 - 2025, with a vision to 2030; Implementing 03 National sector plans of Forestry, Fishery and Aquaculture.