Hanoi (VNA) -🦋 Vietnam and New Zealand affirmedtheir commitment to deepening the two countries’ agriculture and traderelationship at the second Vietnam - New Zealand Agricultural Dialogue heldvirtually on April 6.

The sides underlined that in order to realise the goal of lifting two-way trade turnover to 2 billion USD by 2024, increasing bilateralagricultural cooperation and connections between the two countries is key. Speaking at the ceremony, Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Agricultureand Rural Development Le Quoc Doanh said: “Both nations are strong agricultureproducers and exporters, with complementary products. The Vietnam - New ZealandAgricultural Dialogue will boost our connections, cooperation and two-waytrade, in line with what our two Prime Ministers highlighted in the StrategicPartnership Joint Statement.” Vietnam remains a promising market for New Zealand and viceversa due to robust demand for key agricultural products. Vietnam’s agro-forestry-aquatic product export and  import turnover to NewZealand hit 549.2 million USD in 2021, posting a year-on-year growth of 11percent. The country has exported mango, dragon fruit and rambutan, and is workingto ship lime, pomelo and passion fruit to New Zealand. Of note, Doanh proposed that the New Zealand side help Vietnam to build a supply chain for dragon fruit, as the Southeast Asian nationis the world's largest producer and exporter of the fruit. For his part, Chief Executive of the New Zealand Ministryfor Primary Industries Ray Smith emphasised that this is the opportunity forboth sides to consider how the countries can work together to build resilienceand vitality in their agriculture economies following the COVID-19 pandemic.

The sides committed to enhancing bilateral trade, reducing agricultural greenhouse gasemissions, promoting food safety, utilising agriculture research andtechnology, and in rural development.

The New Zealand Ministry for Primary Industries issupporting agriculture cooperation with the Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) with activities in planthealth, veterinary epidemiology and electronic certification.

﷽ These activities complement New Zealand’s ongoingdevelopment programme, which has a number of agriculture projects including thepremium fruit development project in Tien Giang, the rural dam safety projectin the central region, and the safe vegetables project in Binh Dinh. 

Smith also reaffirmed that New Zealand will keep assisting theMARD’s greenhouse gas inventory capability through the Global Research Allianceon Agricultural Greenhouse Gases. Two-way trade between Vietnam and New Zealand topped 1.56billion USD last year, an increase of 14 percent, and by last December, Vietnamwas New Zealand’s 15th largest trading partner./.