Analysis Reports

        The Vietnamese food processing sector continues to expand supported by rebounding economic growth and macroeconomic stability, Vietnam’s deepening international economic integration, and a rapidly urbanizing, youthful population which are shifting their diets to include more processed and package food products. As foreign invested food processors continue to establish themselves in the Vietnam market, the prospects for U.S. food ingredient exporters will continue to improve, but the overall market will remain very competitive, with preference continuing to be given to regional ingredient exporters, such as South Korea, Thailand, and Malaysia.  

       Post estimates Vietnam’s wheat import volume in the MY 2014/2015 at 2.10 million tons, a slightly increase compared to MY 2013/2014 imported volume, with expectations of an increase in the use of feed wheat. Imported volume for MY 2015/2016 is forecast at 2.2 million tons, with the same expectation of increased feed wheat use. Vietnam’s wheat imports for MY 2013/2014 were 2.03 million tons, about 100,000 lower than USDA’s official estimate mainly due to less imported feed wheat. 

           Post estimates corn imported volume in MY 2014/2015 to be at 2.0 million tons, down from the 2.4 million tons of MY 2013/2014 due to the expected increase of local production. The import volume of corn in MY 2015/2016 is forecast at 1.8 million tons, a 200,000-ton decrease compared with MY 2014/2015, due to expected higher local corn production and carry-over stocks from MY 2013/2014. 

         Post estimates total rice production for MY 2014/2015 to reach 44.88 million tons of paddy rice, about 320,000 tons of paddy less than USDA’s official number due mainly to the adjustment of seasonal rice planted/harvested area. Vietnam’s MY 2014/2015 rice exported volume is revised to 6.7 million tons due to expected strong competition from Thailand, India, Pakistan and other new exporters such as Cambodia and Myanmar.  

The original  fisheries  improvement project  (FIP) Action Plan was developed  following a FIP  stakeholder meeting held  in Kien Giang, Vietnam  in  June 2010, and was  finalized  in  July 2010.   The  purpose of  this document is to update the revised 2013 Action Plan, based on results of the FIP review meeting held in Rach Giang, Vietnam on August 29-30, 2014, and to provide background  information on the number of ongoing and new activities that are underway, reconfirm activities which have not yet been implemented, and revise activities based on new  information, which may  include revisions to the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) Fisheries Assessment Methodology (FAM). The revisions to the Milestones have been made along with some deleted activities which were deemed to be too costly, or could be developed in a more efficient way.  This revised Action Plan includes information on the proposed milestones for each activity, the scoring guideposts met, the stakeholder organization responsible  for  implementation, the expected timeframe to complete the task and the current status. Work plans for each outcome and activity had been set in 2010, but were later refined into milestones in December 2012. A project logframe was developed which  integrated the milestones set, with the previously defined activities. The milestones and  logframe have been adjusted to reflect the changed agreed in the August, 2014 workshop outputs. The document also includes the use of MSCs new Benchmark Tracking Tool. 

       Although agriculture only contributes 20 percent to GDP in Vietnam, over 70 percent of the population relies on the sector. Rice is the most important crop in Vietnam accounting for 90 percent of total grain output.  The agricultural sector has faced recent challenges due to urbanization and industrialization, as well as few opportunities for increasing cultivated land area. Increased crop yields through the use of chemical fertilizer is one of the few methods available for increasing agricultural output. The purpose of this policy brief is to analyze changes in the policy environment and its impact on fertilizer use and supply during Vietnam’s partial transition from a centrally planned to market-oriented system. More specifically, this brief seeks to understand the roles the State and private sector have played in sustaining growth in fertilizer use and supply to ensure food security and rice exports.

      The Agricultural Outlook 2015-2024, is a collaborative effort of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. It brings together the commodity, policy and country expertise of both organisations and input from collaborating member countries to provide an annual assessment of prospects for the coming decade of national, regional and global agricultural commodity markets. The special feature on Brazil has been prepared in collaboration with analysts associated with the Ministério da Agricultura, Pecuária e Abastecimento (MAPA) and Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária (Embrapa). However, OECD and FAO are responsible for the information and projections contained in this document, and the views expressed in the special feature do not necessarily reflect those of Brazilian institutions.