Ho Chi Minh City targets a GRDP growth rate of 6% in 2022

Reporting at the press conference to announce the socio-economic statistics of Ho Chi Minh City 2021 organized by the Ho Chi Minh City Statistics Office on the afternoon of December 29, Mr. Dinh Minh Hiep, Director of the Department of Agriculture and Agricultural Development Ho Chi Minh City said that due to the prolonged impact of the Covid-19 epidemic, many agricultural production units were affected.

In 2021, Ho Chi Minh City's agricultural, forestry and fishery sector will decrease by 13.68%. The reason is that Ho Chi Minh City (‘The City') implements social distancing, traditional markets and wholesale markets, industrial food chains, and schools are closed to prevent epidemics. Meanwhile, the city's agricultural production mainly supplies traditional markets, wholesale markets, industrial food chains, and schools. As for the supermarket system, most of the goods are sourced from the provinces.

On the other hand, the area planted with flowers and ornamental plants decreased slightly, flowers quantity harvested could not be consumed. Consumption of aquatic products, poultry… also decreased. Many households, farms, and businesses stretch production to avoid risks. “During the recent epidemic, the number of sales of items such as clams, shellfish (Can Gio district); Pangasius, tilapia (Cu Chi district) for restaurants reduced. Therefore, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Ho Chi Minh City, the Farmers' Association of Ho Chi Minh City, and some supermarkets had to support the consumption of farmers," said Mr. Hiep.

Talking about the upcoming orientation of the City's agriculture, Mr. Hiep said that in 2022, in the spirit of safe adaptation to prevent and control the Covid-19 epidemic, strengthening economic recovery, the City set a goal of GRDP growth rate of agriculture is 6% (in 2021 it is proposed to range from 2-5%). The City wants to restore agricultural production and create a new increase in farmers' income.

In addition, Ho Chi Minh City also boosted agricultural production, focusing on promoting production and consumption, especially agricultural product export during the Covid-19 epidemic situation; To step up the program on development of seedlings and high technology; as well as the agricultural restructuring program under Decision 1589.

“We will review policies and programs to remove difficulties and accelerate the transition to more beneficial crops, livestock, and aquatic products for farmers. Most especially, the agricultural sector will continue to increase the application of high technology.

In the past time, the City has also made efforts to promote the transfer of application of scientific and technical advances, focusing on building towards the 4.0 agriculture associated with ecotourism activities", said the Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Ho Chi Minh City.

In addition, Ho Chi Minh City plans to establish a Center for the production of plant seeds, animal breeds, and aquatic products, creating good income for farmers.

“Currently, the southern provinces have a high demand for vegetable varieties and pig breeds. The Department focuses on supporting farmers to produce seeds as well as to transfer them to provinces. Besides, farmers will reconnect to form cooperatives and connect with businesses to form a link chain. From there, towards the production and consumption of products, ensuring food safety for farmers, and towards providing a sustainable source of goods for supermarket systems," said Mr. Hiep.

Mr. Hiep said that the city is waiting for the Prime Minister to make an official decision on the program to build new homes according to new criteria, as well as the program of one product per commune. This is the direction of rural development and serves to connect the agricultural product chain and promote deep processing of agricultural products, creating new products from which to introduce OCOP local products to create value for agriculture.

Currently, Ho Chi Minh's agriculture has made a shift towards urban agriculture, high-tech agriculture, and biotechnology. The agricultural economic structure continues to shift in the direction of reducing the area under one-crop rice cultivation, with poor efficiency, to crops and livestock of high economic value, suitable to the City's conditions, such as orchids, ornamental plants, ornamental fish, safe vegetables, dairy farming, brackish water shrimp...

In 2021, the total buffalo herd in Ho Chi Minh City is estimated at 4,555 heads, down 7.4% over the same period last year. The buffalo herd is raised mainly for meat purposes. The total herd of cows is estimated at 103,366 heads, in which, the dairy herd with 75,997 heads, provides stable high-quality milk production to the market. Estimated fresh milk production for the whole year will reach 253.8 thousand liters, reaching 91.7% over the same period.

In December, there were 168,210 pigs, a slight decrease of 1.7% compared to the same period last year. The total poultry herd now has 358 thousand heads, down 14.5% over the same period last year, of which the chicken flock is estimated at 323,000 heads, down 14.1% over the same period. The reason is that chicken meat demand is not high due to gradually stable pork production.

The total area of forest land is 36,770 hectares; the rate of forest cover and forest trees reached 17.55%. Total timber harvested in 2021 is estimated at 7100m3, down 15.3%.

Total seafood production in 2021 is estimated at 52,781.4 tonnes, down 12.3% over the same period last year. In which, fish production is estimated at 16,652.4 tonnes; shrimp production is estimated at 12,425.5 tonnes, other seafood production is estimated at 23,703.5 tonnes.