Enterprises exporting agricultural products are dynamic and flexible in the face of a series of changes

	Deep processing to develop the local agricultural products
	Spending billions of USD to import agricultural products
	Deep processing is the key to taking Vietnamese fruits to world markets

Producing value-added shrimp for export at Sao Ta Food Joint Stock Company. Photo: TL

Proactively transform production

Technical barriers have also been erected in the process of Vietnam's increasingly strong international integration and the opportunity to open the market when Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) are signed. Besides, markets are also increasingly demanding the quality of imported goods. Moreover, for agricultural products and food, consumption trends are also increasingly changing, from eating fully to eating delicious, eating clean, good for health and moving towards green consumption.

The above changes require businesses to make changes right from the production stage to meet the standards of the import market.

As a fruit exporter that has achieved many successes in difficult markets, Ngo Tuong Vy, Deputy Director of Chanh Thu Company, said that the key to this success is because Chanh Thu has invested in raw materials that meet safety standards such as VietGAP, GlobalGAP in many localities, cooperate with farmers in production to have standard materials. "Clean production is about protecting ourselves, helping to build brands and reputations for businesses," emphasized Ngo Tuong Vy.

As a result, Chanh Thu Company has made many impressions on the picture of Vietnam's fruit exports, from mangoes to the US, lychees to the Japanese market, and shortly there will be many other fruits brought by Chanh Thu. to international customers. Even in the Chinese market, many years ago, when many people still saw this as an easy market, Chanh Thu set her standards for production. Thanks to that, when China changed its import policy, Chanh Thu did not have much difficulty meeting the regulations. Chanh Thu's fruits are regularly exported to China through official channels.

Like Chanh Thu, many rice exporters are also making drastic changes in production to improve product quality. For example, after many years of implementing rice production according to safety standards, two leading rice exporters of Vietnam, Loc Troi and Tan Long, announced the association of large-scale rice production in An Giang earlier this year. Accordingly, businesses will support cooperatives to mechanize synchronously seasonal activities, increase productivity, reduce costs, increase economic efficiency and thereby increase the competitiveness of rice in the international market.

Recently, these two enterprises have also successfully exported their own branded rice products to the European and Japanese markets, a new step for Vietnamese rice on the journey to conquer international customers.

Flexibility in business

In addition to actively transforming production activities to improve product quality, business flexibility is also a factor that helps businesses withstand market fluctuations and promptly seize opportunities. Recently, Global Trade Link Co., Ltd. has successfully exported two containers of agricultural coffee with the brand Meet More to the EU market. Before that, Meet More coffee was also exported to South Korea, Australia, and India with an impressive growth rate of 20-30% per year – a desirable number of many agro-processing enterprises for export when the product is branded with the enterprise's own brand.

Nguyen Ngoc Luan, Founder and CEO of Meet More Coffee, said that, unlike ordinary coffee, agricultural coffee results from a skilful blend of coffee and agricultural products to suit the coffee taste of European customers and countries around the world. According to Luan, when the company negotiated with a partner to bring Meet More coffee to the EU, Europe had a supply chain bottleneck, and some drinks in other countries were in short supply, so they wanted to replace the new drink line. Thanks to the true expression of Vietnamese agricultural products, Meet More is highly appreciated by European partners. However, when negotiating, they still ask to export in the form of processing and products bearing their brand.

"It is a habit of European partners when negotiating with Vietnamese businesses. If you are not sober or want to sell to easily accepted businesses, Meet More is determined to keep the brand. Because this is a product line made from good agricultural materials of Vietnam and not available on the world market, it should not be confused with any other products," said Luan. After six months of persistent negotiation, the partner agreed to import the first orders, fortunately, at that time, the EVFTA Agreement had just been approved, so the following orders enjoyed preferential tariffs. It is expected that from now until the end of the year, about 20 more 40-foot containers of Meet More coffee will be exported to the EU. Notably, the selling price of agricultural coffee is 10 to 15% higher than normal coffee's.

Since the outbreak of the Covid-19 epidemic, supply chain disruptions have taken place across the globe, causing logistics costs to skyrocket many times over. This makes enterprises exporting goods to the US and EU have to bear a huge cost burden. Faced with that situation, many enterprises had to restructure export markets to ensure profits.

For example, at Minh Phu Seafood Joint Stock Company, for many years in a row, the US has been this company's largest market, with a proportion of up to 34% in 2021. However, there are consecutive anti-dumping lawsuits, a fight against tax evasion, and skyrocketing freight rates, so this enterprise has decided to reduce its proportion in this market. Le Van Quang, General Director of Minh Phu Seafood Corporation, said that doing business in the US is not profitable, so it will reduce its market share in this market and promote sales in markets with better profits.

Similarly, Sao Ta Food Joint Stock Company is also moving into the near market, matching its strengths. According to Ho Quoc Luc, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Sao Ta Food Joint Stock Company, Sao Ta's sales will not grow strongly, only slightly above the industry's level, but profit margins will certainly improve, and profit margins will be improved profit for the whole year will always reach a high level, exceeding the set plan. Of course, Sao Ta still maintains and takes advantage of opportunities in the US market and other markets, focusing on the segment of deep-processed products.