Hanoi (VNA) 🌜- Vietnam is ramping up efforts to expand market access for its agricultural, forestry, and fishery products through negotiations with potential partners, paving the way for a breakthrough in the country's agricultural products.

While the sector has maintained growth momentum, it continues to face considerable challenges in early 2025, notably from tariff policies imposed by the United States, the largest agricultural export market of Vietnam. These policies are exerting pressure on the sector’s overall export growth. Experts have emphasised that leveraging free trade agreements and boosting access to emerging markets will be key to achieving the sector’s ambitious export target of 65 billion USD this year.

Agricultural export maintains growth momentum

In the first four months of 2025, Vietnam’s total export value of agricultural, forestry, and fishery products reached 21.15 billion USD, marking a 10.7% year-on-year increase. Of this, agricultural exports contributed 11.6 billion USD (up 11.7%), forestry products 5.56 billion USD (up 11.2%), and seafood 3.09 billion USD (up 13.7%). Livestock products brought in 178 million USD (up 16.8%), while production inputs totalled 722 million USD (up 20%). Six out of the ten key export items recorded a value of over 1 billion USD. Wood and wood products (5.2 billion USD) and coffee (3.78 billion USD) emerged as the sector’s leading exports, jointly accounting for over 40% of the total export value. Notably, coffee exports saw a dramatic surge of 51.1%, largely due to a 67.5% jump in average export price, which climbed to 5,698 USD per tonne. This underscores the success of Vietnam’s strategy to improve product quality and strengthen branding. However, some commodities have struggled. Rice exports were hit by a "double blow" with both volume (down 14.3%) and price (down 20%) declining amid fierce competition from India and Thailand. Similarly, fruit and vegetable exports dropped 14.2%.

Market diversification

Vietnamese agri-exports have shown a strong shift towards high-end markets. Exports to Europe grew by 37.7% to 3.48 billion USD, bolstered by the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA). Africa, an emerging market, posted a record increase of 78.4%, although total value remained modest at 648 million USD, offering promise for diversification. Exports to the Americas rose by 12.6% to 4.83 billion USD, while those to Asia, a traditional market, fell slightly by 1.3% to 8.82 billion USD.

The US remained Vietnam’s top export market, accounting for 20.5% of total export value, followed by China at 17.1%. However, this reliance on the two largest markets, which together make up nearly 40% of total exports, poses significant risk, especially if either country adjusts import policies or adopts protectionist measures.

Tapping into potential markets

To ease pressure on the sector, Vietnam is intensifying negotiations to open new markets. The EVFTA continues to be a valuable tool in promoting Vietnamese agricultural exports to Europe. In May 2024, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (now the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment – MoAE) led a delegation to foster cooperation and promote agri-trade with a focus on the UK and Germany. Germany, a key EU partner for Vietnam in agricultural trade, has seen steady growth in bilateral agro-forestry-fishery trade since the EVFTA took effect in August 2020. In 2024 alone, Vietnam's exports to Germany reached 1.3 billion USD, a 32% increase from 2023. In May this year, MoAE, in collaboration with the Vietnamese Embassy in Germany and the German Agribusiness Alliance (GAA), hosted a trade dialogue. During the event, Vietnamese and German business associations and enterprises exchanged insights on market demand, consumer preferences, import-export regulations, and best practices for exporting fruit, vegetables, seafood, and meat products to German supermarket chains./.