Agriculture struggling amid pandemic

The agriculture sector is considered a main pillar of Vietnam's economy but has been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Specifically, according to statistics of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, in the first eight months of 2021, the total import-export turnover of agricultural, forestry and fishery products and agricultural materials is estimated at 60.9 billion USD; in which export turnover reached 32.1 billion USD, up 21.6% and import turnover was about 28.8 billion USD, up 44.1% over the same period last year.

With this result, after 8 months, the trade surplus of the agricultural industry was only 3.3 billion USD, down 48.2% over the same period last year.

PRODUCTION STOP, MATERIALS IMPORT UP

Of the total import turnover of 28.8 billion USD, the main agricultural products are estimated at 17.8 billion USD, up 57.7%; livestock products (pork, meat products, eggs, poultry...) reached over 2.5 billion USD, up 6.6%; import of aquatic products was estimated at 1.4 billion USD, up 19.3%; the main group of forest products about 2.2 billion USD, up 38.3%; production input group was nearly 5 billion USD, up 36%.

In terms of market, Cambodia is the largest supplier of agricultural products to Vietnam, reaching $2.9 billion, accounting for 10.0% of the market share (of which cashew products account for 72.2% of the value); followed by the US with over 2.7 billion USD, accounting for 9.3% market share (cotton products accounted for 36.3% proportion).

In August 2021 alone, most localities implemented social distancing to combat the Covid-19 epidemic, resulting in the impact of processing and exporting agricultural, forestry and fishery products.

Cashew nuts imported by business type from ASEAN have an import tax of 0%, while those imported from non-ASEAN markets have a tax of 5%. Thus, it can be questioned that cashew nut importers "borrow" Cambodian sugar to evade import tax on this item.

Regarding the violation technique, some subjects set up businesses and in the first stage will do business according to regulations to create trust, create a cover, after a while will massively import a large amount of goods and then sell domestically. to evade taxes and the business owner will run away. According to regulations, enterprises importing raw materials for processing and production of export goods are entitled to the import tax rate of 0%, but all finished products must be exported. In case enterprises arbitrarily consume domestically is a violation and will be severely handled.

Currently, the authorities of the General Department of Customs have planned to inspect 130 cashew processing enterprises with suspicious signs in some localities. Not only is the risk of fraud and tax evasion, the violations of the subjects also seriously affect the production and business of genuine businesses and the lives of domestic cashew growers.

Agro-forestry-fishery export turnover in August 2021 is estimated at nearly 3.4 billion USD; down 21.6% compared to August 2020 and down 22.0% compared to July 2021. However, imports of the agriculture, forestry and fishery industry still increased strongly in August 2021, even the import turnover for the first time was higher than the export value of the industry in a month.

To explain this, some experts believe that due to the impact of the Covid-19 epidemic, many factories produce inputs for agricultural production, especially factories producing fertilizers and feed ingredients in the country. The country had to reduce capacity, even stop production.

According to data from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, in the first half of 2021, the whole country imported 2.31 million tons of fertilizers of all kinds, with a turnover of 645.32 million USD, up 14.4% in volume. , up 25.5% in turnover over the same period last year.

Meanwhile, farmers' demand for livestock and crops still has to be maintained, leading to favorable conditions for imports to increase.

In terms of prices, on the world market, prices of fertilizers have all increased dramatically compared to a year ago: Potassium 54% higher, Urea 56% more expensive, UAN32 60% higher, anhydrous 62% more expensive, UAN28 64% higher, DAP 69% more expensive and MAP 75% higher. And this is the reason pushing up the domestic fertilizer price in recent years, negatively affecting the production and cultivation of farmers.

This year has witnessed an unprecedented increase in imports of raw cashew nuts, becoming one of the "culprits" that pushed the agricultural industry's import turnover to increase sharply.

IMPORTING TOURNAMENT OF CHANNELS INCREASE MORE THAN 200%

According to data from the General Department of Customs, in the first seven months of 2021, the amount of cashew imports exceeded 2.03 million tons, with a turnover of nearly 3.05 billion USD; increased by 160.2% in volume, 207% in turnover over the same period in 2020.

Notably, although it is only the end of August, the import turnover and volume of cashews has doubled compared to the whole year of 2020 (in 2020, the whole country imported only 1.45 million tons with a turnover of more than 1.8 billion USD). .

Among the import markets, imports from Cambodia increased dramatically and became the largest supplier of cashew nuts to Vietnam.

Cashew nuts imported from Cambodia accounted for 53.7% of the total volume and accounted for 60.2% of the total cashew imports of the country.

In the 7 months of 2021, cashew nut imports from Cambodia amounted to 1.1 million tons, with a turnover of more than 1.83 billion USD, a terrible increase of 455.9% in volume, up 632% in turnover.

Cashew industry has always had a trade surplus during the past 31 years, in 2020 cashew exports will be worth 3.19 billion USD; trade surplus of more than 1.2 billion USD. However, in 2021, for the first time, the cashew industry fell into a trade deficit.

Cashew nut export turnover in the past 8 months reached 2.25 billion USD, up 15.1% in value compared to 8 months of 2020. If it is estimated that for the whole year of 2021, cashew exports will still maintain the growth in turnover. 15%, then cashew export turnover will be about 3.67 billion USD; while the import of cashew in the past 8 months has approached this figure.

As a leading food producer and exporter in the world, our country's industrial animal feed industry still has to import 70-85% of raw materials from abroad and is increasing every year in both quantity and quality. as value. Particularly in the first eight months of 2021, the import turnover of animal feed ingredients increased by 55% over the same period last year.

The reason is that the domestic agricultural industry can only supply a maximum of 4.5 - 5 million tons of corn kernels, 4 million tons of bran, 4 million tons of cassava for animal feed, while the annual demand needs up to 26 -27 million tons of all kinds, mainly corn, soybean, wheat, animal and vegetable oils.

It is time for Vietnam to have a strategy to develop domestic feed ingredients in a basic and methodical way. It is necessary to have many synchronous solutions, one of which is to develop crops for animal feed production such as corn and soybeans, and to increase the area of ​​grass for cows. At the same time, there are solutions to promote the processing of by-products of the seafood industry such as fish meal and shellfish powder to be used as raw materials for animal feed production.