Export of agricultural products: Good start but big challenges from climate change in 2016

Good start…

According to statistics of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Vietnam, export turnover of key agricultural commodities was estimated at US$1.9 billion, a year-on-year surge of 4.2%. Aquatic export earned US$938 million, up 11.9% and forestry products brought back US$1.1 billion, up 8.2%.

Export of aquatic products has been supported by the improvement in production and exploitation. In two beginning months of the year, fishing production was estimated to reach 830.3 thousand tons, increased by 3.1% over the same period last year, of which production of aquaculture gained 350.8 thousand tons, up 2.2%; production of fishing caught achieved 479.5 thousand tons, up 3.8%.

In February, Vietnam exported 523,000 tons of rice, bringing the total volume to 1.01 million tons with US$ 445 million in turnover in the first two months. Other key products saw also an increase in export turnover in two first months of 2016 in comparison to the same period of 2015, for example, coffee with export turnover of US$ 210 million; rubber with US$ 38 million; tea with US$ 10 million; cashew with US$ 91 million; pepper with US$ 92 million.

In addition to agricultural products, furniture export amounted to US$ 466 million in February and US$ 1.11 billion in the first two months, representing a year-on-year growth of 8.2%.

Among main export market of agricultural products of Vietnam, the U.S, Japan and China were the biggest importers of Viet Nam's aquatic products, accounting for 43.41% of total export turnover

But big challenges from climate change

Despite the good start in the first months of the year, Vietnamese agricultural export is facing challenges due to harsh weather and difficult consumption. The agro-forestry-fishery sector was forecast to cope with the second year of low growth rate.

Vietnam is among top countries affected by climate change. Agricultural production and export may decline if the country cannot find effective solutions to deal with climate change.

According to the latest report of The World Resources Institute (WRI), Vietnam would suffer the fourth largest impact from floods among 164 surveyed countries. Storms and floods, a typical example of climate change have deprived cultivation lands of Vietnamese farmers. Calculations of WRI showed that if the sea water level rises by one meter, 40 percent of the area in Mekong River Delta, 11 percent of Red River Delta and 3 percent of area in other coastal provinces would be submerged. The cultivation land in the two most important agricultural production areas in Vietnam would be eliminated as 80 percent of the Mekong River Delta and 30 percent in Red River Delta are 2.5 meters lower than the seawater level.