Farm produce prices kenya

BANGKOK -- Thailand and Vietnam are in talks on a pact to raise the price of their rice exports to increase their leverage in the global market and improve farmer incomes, a Thai government official said on Friday. Agriculture officials from Thailand and Vietnam, the world's second and third biggest rice exporters, met in Bangkok on Friday to discuss joint measures to support their farmers and rice industries and manage growing production costs. "We aim to raise rice prices, increase farmer income and increase bargaining power in the global market," Thai government spokesperson Thanakorn Wangboonkongchana said in a statement after discussions on the sidelines of a farms expo. "The rice price has been low for more than 20 years while the cost of production has been increasing." Vietnam's agriculture ministry could not immediately be reached for comment. Vietnam and Thailand account for roughly 10% of global production of rough rice, and about 26% of global exports, according … [Read more...] about Thailand aims for pact with Vietnam to raise rice prices

Bilateral trade recovery According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, after two years of COVID-19, trade between Vietnam and the UK recovered in 2021, reaching nearly US$6.6 billion. This included more than US$5.7 billion worth of Vietnam’s exports to the UK, an increase of 16.4 percent compared with 2020. Vietnamese goods at a UK supermarket Products with high export growth included fruit and vegetables (up 67 percent); coffee (up 17 percent); pepper (up 49 percent); carpets and products made of bamboo, rattan and sedge (up 56 percent); iron and steel materials (up 1,269 percent); steel products (up 100 percent) and toys and sports equipment (up 19 percent). The value of Vietnam’s imports from the UK reached nearly US$850 million, an increase of 23.6 percent compared with 2020. In the first four months of 2022, Vietnam’s exports to the UK reached an estimated US$4.8 billion with key products including seafood, coffee, pepper, cashew nuts, plastic products, … [Read more...] about Vietnam-UK agreement creates leverage for bilateral trade

Experts from the Hà Nội Department of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Hà Nội Agriculture Promotion Fund visit a chicken raising model for clean eggs with high productivity in Liên Châu Commune, Thanh Oai District in Hà Nội. — Photo courtesy of the Hà Nội Sub-department of Agricultural, Forestry and Fisheries Quality Management HÀ NỘI — Hà Nội’s agricultural sector has strengthened safe agricultural areas to ensure sustainable production and provide a source of clean food for domestic and foreign consumers living in the capital city. Nguyễn Giáp Đông, head of the Ba Vì District's Economic Division, said that the district currently maintained a safe tea production area spanning 1,550ha and productivity of 10.5 tonnes per hectare per year. The output for the whole year is estimated at 16,275 tonnes of fresh buds, worth VNĐ350 million (US$14,900) per hectare per year. To help farmers maintain and expand safe production areas, Ba Vì District has supported and created … [Read more...] about Hà Nội builds safe agricultural production areas

A rice field in the Mekong Delta province of Đồng Tháp’s Tháp Mười District. Many rice farmers in the delta are gradually reducing their areas for rice cultivation due to rising prices of input materials — VNA/VNS Photo Nhựt An MEKONG DELTA — Rice farmers in many Cửu Long (Mekong) Delta provinces are reducing rice cultivation over rising prices of inputs like fertilisers and pesticides. According to the Đồng Tháp Province's Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, the area of rice cultivation in the province for the summer-autumn crop is 375,263ha, down 8,305ha over last year. In An Giang Province, the area of rice seeding for the same crop was 209,186ha, down about 600ha over last year. The province’s Plant Protection Division said farmers were switching to vegetables and fruits. Vĩnh Long Province, meanwhile, expected to sow 51,500ha of rice for the summer-autumn crop last year, but the total sowing area was around 45,267ha, about 88 per cent of the plan. … [Read more...] about Mekong Delta farmers back away from rice as input costs rise

Garment production for export at Kim Dung Textile and Garment Company in District 12, Ho Chi Minh City. (Photo: SGGP) Dependence on imported raw materials Ms. Nguyen Thi Tuyet Mai, Deputy General Secretary of the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association, said that the total number of enterprises participating in the textile and garment sector in Vietnam, including foreign and domestic enterprises, is more than 7,000. Of which, only 18 percent of them produce fabric materials, 12 percent produce yarn, 2 percent produce other materials, and the rest are garment enterprises. This fact has put the textile industry in front of the challenge of unstable growth due to its dependence on imported raw materials. Currently, each year, Vietnam imports 100 percent of cotton with an estimated value of US$3.2 billion and 60 percent of fabric with an estimated value of $14 billion. The US is the largest cotton and fabric import market of Vietnam, followed by China, Japan, South Korea, and … [Read more...] about Vietnamese textile-garment industry strong but not stable

The National Assembly will this week discuss how to provide more jobs for Vietnam’s citizens, Photo: Le Toan Over the past seven months, Nguyen Duc Minh has been in a lurch to feed his 4-member family, with his wife having had to stop working since late last year for a garment company in Hanoi. Before that time, Minh had been working for a Japanese company based in the capital’s Thang Long Industrial Park for four years. However, the company, producing electronics and plastics equipment, has made a staff cutback of 150 employees including Minh, whose monthly income was about VND7 million ($300). “The company had to reduce production caused by a decrease in export orders from Japan, South Korea, and some European markets,” Minh said. “I hope to be employed again by the company as I learned that the company is going to recover.” In Dong Anh district’s Kim Chung commune, home to Minh’s family, thousands of unemployed people are commonly seen now. They used to work in Thang Long … [Read more...] about All policies on table to ignite enterprises

Insured patients are waiting to receive medicine at Trung Vuong Hospital Recently, many people have reported that physicians at Thu Duc City Hospital or satellite clinics of the hospital asked them to go out to buy medicine because the hospital is short of medicine. Many patients with health insurance cards have been angry about losing their benefits; therefore, they have sent petitions to responsible agencies. Talking about this, Director of the Department of Health of Ho Chi Minh City Associate Professor Tang Chi Thuong said that right after the social distance, the number of patients with health insurance cards coming to Thu Duc City Hospital for examination and treatment increased from 80 percent to more than 100 percent compared to the number during the epidemic outbreak. According to the data of the health sector, the number of outpatients with health insurance cards in August 2021 was only about 28,048 persons while it was 75,459 patients in April 2022. Worse, the Thu … [Read more...] about Hospitals in HCMC short of medicines

Illustrative image (Photo: VNA) HCM City (VNA) – Vietnam raked in an estimated 4.5 billion USD from exporting aquatic export s in the first five months of 2022, up over 44.5 percent over the same period last year, according to the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP). Despite various challenges and difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and global changes in the last two years, Vietnamese seafood enterprises have seized opportunities to expand exports, and won orders with much higher prices than those in 2021. The positive results were attributed to the recovering and booming demand in many markets, the shortage of supply, and the increasing inflation in many countries. Vietnamese seafood processors and exporters have fully tapped advantages from the high inflation of the US market, China’s zero-COVID policy, and the strongly recovering demand in the European market to increase their exports to foreign markets. Notably, exports of shrimp, … [Read more...] about Vietnam’s seafood exports enjoy strong surge despite challenges

An LNG power plant in the southern province of Ca Mau. — Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Industry and Trade Too many variables and over-reliance on imports have been hindering Viet Nam's plan to build power plants running on liquefied natural gas (LNG), industry experts have said. A key issue for investors was a lack of guarantee for future output once the plants become operational, or at least a penalty clause in the event Electricity Vietnam (EVN) - the country's largest power distributor - failed to purchase the said output. EVN, however, said such a policy was not possible under the country's current regulations, which has resulted in a number of projects being unable to proceed. A source from the Ministry of Industry and Trade said it would likely take a long time to overcome such legal hurdles and conclude negotiations with investors, especially foreign ones. Another issue was the difficulty in calculating energy prices based on LNG. As global demand rises and … [Read more...] about High costs and legal impasses hinder LNG energy development