A Vietnamese working group led by Vice Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Quoc Doanh is scheduled to visit the US from February 24 to 29 to seek greater cooperation in agricultural trade.

Illustrative photo.

The group consists of 19 enterprises and one associations specialized in production of cereals, animal feed, meat, milk products, seafood, vegetables, wooden products, fertilizer and chemicals.

According to the working program, the group would visit agricultural suppliers in the US, with an aim of importing agricultural products and technologies to support domestic production and consumption; promoting cooperation and agro-forestry-fishery trade between enterprises from the two countries; looking for opportunities for technology transfer in agricultural sector towards the development of domestic production chain and addressing pending issues in bilateral agricultural trade.

US exports to Vietnam have been rising steadily from US$9.35 billion in 2017 to US$14.37 billion in 2019, a 53% increase in two years. For fresh fruits, export turnover from the US to Vietnam increased from US$210 million to US$304 million during the period, up 51%.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development gives priority to cooperation with US partners inr hi-tech farming and organic agriculture, targeting an increase of US$3 billion in agricultural exports in the coming time.

Farm produce shipments from the US to Vietnam have increasing steadily recently, helping to ease the widening trade deficit with Vietnam.

Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuong said Vietnam’s agriculture is among the hardest-hit sectors as exports to China are poised to plunge under the effect of Covid-19.

China is currently one of the major export markets for Vietnamese fisheries and agricultural products, accounting for 22 – 24% of the country’s farm exports.

Cuong, nevertheless, said this would be an opportunity for Vietnam to restructure the agricultural sector to avoid dependence on a single market.