Longan products are harvested from technology application gardens in Song Ma District. Photo: Quoc Tuan

Also, in the first quarter, more than 23,600 enterprises around the country returned to operation, including 341 in the agricultural sector (up 7.9% over the same period last year).

Agriculture is a sector in which the number of businesses accounts for a very small proportion of the total number of businesses in the country, so the increase in both the number of new establishments and the resumption of operations in the past three months is a good sign for the production and business activities of the entire industry.

In fact, in the first quarter of 2024, the agricultural industry achieved impressive achievements, with the industry's trade surplus reaching 3.36 billion USD, an increase of 96.5% over the same period in 2023. In particular, the total export turnover reached 13.53 billion USD, an increase of 21.8%. Four commodities have achieved an export value of more than 1 billion USD, including wood, vegetables, rice and coffee.

Agricultural enterprises are gradually asserting their core role in the value chain of all agricultural industries. Especially in current conditions, along with benefiting from tariffs thanks to Vietnam's increasingly extensive participation in free trade agreements, Vietnam’s agricultural products also face non-tariff measures, which are technical barriers to trade (TBT) and sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures from importing countries.

Therefore, without the "guidance" of businesses with adequate human resources, finance, technology, etc., agricultural products will hardly meet the product quality requirements of the partners. In addition, as Vietnam's agricultural industry is in the phase of actively developing green production and reducing greenhouse gas emissions in most key industries, such as rice, coffee, and seafood, with new requirements on operating techniques and large demands on investment capital, it is essential for businesses to join hands.

Therefore, it is necessary to create all conditions to attract more businesses in the agricultural sector and promote credit. A mechanism to encourage establishing more new businesses in this sector is also essential. In addition, it is crucial to synchronously deploy specific and practical solutions to facilitate the operations of agricultural enterprises, such as reviewing, reducing, and strongly simplifying administrative procedures and business conditions in the agricultural sector. The authorities should also cut down the list of goods and products subject to specialised inspection, shorten inspection time, strengthen risk management, prevent harassment of businesses in the stages of licensing, plant and animal quarantine, provide online public services, support the training for businesses, and strengthen dialogue with enterprises./.