Minister of Agriculture and Environment Tran Duc Thang has just sent an open letter to the business community and industry associations in the fields of agriculture and environment, emphasizing the requirement to proactively respond to fluctuations from the international situation, especially conflicts in the Middle East region that are directly affecting production, export and the competitiveness of Vietnamese goods.
Minister Tran Duc Thang acknowledged the role of the business community and industry associations in accompanying the development of the industry in the past time. Notably, in 2025, the Agriculture and Environment sector achieved GDP growth of 3.78%; the export turnover of agricultural, forestry and fishery products set a record of 70.09 billion USD, far exceeding the set target of 65 billion USD. This result continues to affirm the role of the industry as a "support" in the context of a still difficult and challenging economy.
However, entering 2026, the Agriculture and Environment sector is facing many new pressures. The complex developments of the conflict in the Middle East are causing no small consequences to the global supply chain, increasing logistics costs, input material prices, thereby directly affecting production and business costs as well as the competitiveness of Vietnamese goods in the international market.
In that context, the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment identified the key objective as stabilizing production, ensuring the supply of agricultural materials, reducing production and logistics costs, thereby protecting producers, maintaining the export chain and improving long-term self-reliance. This is considered an urgent requirement for the industry to complete its growth and export goals in 2026.
To proactively respond, the Minister requested the business community and industry associations to focus on coordinating the implementation of 4 key groups of solutions.
First of all, it is to proactively and flexibly respond to changes in the business environment, and at the same time share difficulties with producers in the spirit of "harmonious benefits, shared risks". The Ministry calls on businesses, especially input material suppliers (fertilizers, animal feed, pesticides, etc.), logistics enterprises to maintain stability or reduce prices, maximize capacity to ensure domestic supply and support production.
At the same time, businesses are requested to maintain stable purchasing of agricultural products, increase stockpiling and processing during the peak season to avoid the situation of "bumper crop, price drop".
In addition, the Minister emphasized the requirement to promote chain linkages and domestic consumption. In the context of international logistics facing difficulties, prioritizing the development of sustainable value chain linkage models, consuming products for cooperatives and farmers is considered an important solution to maintain output stability. In parallel, businesses are encouraged to pay more attention to the domestic market in the spirit of "Vietnamese people prioritize using Vietnamese goods", and at the same time flexibly adjust export orders to adapt to new developments.
Another noteworthy content is the requirement to diversify markets and promote green transformation. In addition, the Minister also requested associations to promote their bridging role, regularly summarize problems and "knots" arising related to mechanisms, policies, administrative procedures, credit, taxes, logistics, insurance... and send them to the Ministry for timely consideration, handling or advising the Government to remove them. The message is quite clear: management agencies will accompany businesses, but businesses also need to proactively respond and propose solutions from practice.
The challenges from the Middle East conflict are common difficulties, but also a test for the bravery and creativity of Vietnam's Agriculture and Environment sector.
With the tradition of solidarity, "mutual affection", proactiveness and flexibility, I believe that the consensus between state management agencies, businesses and people will help us turn challenges into opportunities, and excellently complete the 2026 growth target," Minister Tran Duc Thang shared.
