Policy Brief

MARD-VIET NAM Briefing Report August, 2020

VIET NAM - 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%...

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 sustainablyImplementing 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.    


[1] According to Vietnam Administration of Forestry: The acreage of the newly planted forest area was 122.9 thousand hectares; the exploited wood production was 9.19 million m3

[2] Compared to August 2019: the AFF export value increased 1.5%; in which, the major agricultural product group export decreased 2.2%, the main forestry products increased 22.4%, the Fishery and Aquaculture export decreased 1.2%, and the husbandry export decreased 37.4%.

More details

Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development