U.S. Grains Council signs 5-year cooperation deal with Vietnam

The U.S. Grains Council (USGC) on Friday signed a five-year cooperation agreement with the Partnership for Sustainable Agriculture in Vietnam (PSAV), reaffirming its long-term commitment to Vietnam’s agricultural development.

The agreement was reached during a working session between USGC representatives and a visiting Vietnamese delegation led by Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Environment Hoang Trung.

The USGC representatives reiterated that Vietnam has been a priority market for the council since its early days. Their partnership is built on in-depth research and a long-term commitment to promoting trade.

Ryan LeGrand, president and CEO of the USGC, highlighted that the relationship between USGC and Vietnam dates back to 1994, even before the official normalization of diplomatic ties. The USGC opened its representative office in Vietnam in 1996, just one year after relations were normalized.

Currently, both USGC offices in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City maintain strong relationships with Vietnam’s government agencies, organizations, and businesses. Vietnam is viewed by the USGC as a bright spot in Southeast Asia in terms of trade growth, he noted.

Vietnam consistently ranks at the top of USGC’s priority cooperation list, LeGrand stated, expressing optimism about the positive signals coming from the Vietnamese market. He pledged full support, aiming for a sustainable bilateral partnership based on mutual benefit.

LeGrand noted that the USGC has proactively worked with the United States Trade Representative (USTR) to advocate for a review of the current 46% tariff, which it considers excessively high.

From a technical perspective, LeGrand proposed several initiatives to further boost bilateral trade relations. Specifically, he suggested that Vietnam consider easing fumigation requirements to reduce costs for local importers.

For his part, Deputy Minister Trung stated that the main goal of the trip was to strengthen Vietnam-U.S. cooperation in agriculture and environment, promote bilateral trade in agriculture, forestry, and fisheries, and deepen connections between businesses of both countries. This, he said, would help increase Vietnam’s import capacity for U.S. agricultural products.

“In the past four working days, the delegation held many productive discussions with authorities of the U.S. states, businesses, and state-level agricultural departments, contributing to the concrete realization of our goals. Several notable outcomes have already been covered by media outlets in both countries,” he affirmed.

Praising the role of the USGC in advancing agricultural trade, he emphasized that the council was among the first foreign business organizations to operate in Vietnam.

Rising demand for livestock feed imports

Trung noted that Vietnam is currently implementing a strategy to develop its livestock industry toward modernization and sustainability. The country’s herd now includes around 30 million pigs, 550 million poultry, and approximately 14 million cattle.

As such, the domestic demand for livestock feed materials is enormous. Each year, Vietnam imports around $8 billion worth of feed ingredients, primarily corn, soybeans, wheat, and DDGS (dried distillers grains with solubles).

“These are all strong commodities from the U.S.,” the Deputy Minister noted. “The Vietnamese government has been actively promoting policies to create the most favorable conditions for trade activities.”

Particularly, issues of quarantine and food safety are closely overseen by the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, he said, adding specialized agencies align with technical standards, especially SPS (Sanitary and Phytosanitary) measures.

PSAV, a body under Minister of Agriculture and Environment, was established in 2010 under the "New Vision for Agriculture 2020" approach to the 20-20-20 objective, which is 20% increase in productivity, 20% reduction in poverty, and 20% reduction in emissions.

PSAV focuses on linking actors in the agricultural sector to share experiences and collaborate on the value chain development of key agricultural commodities in Vietnam in the form of Public Private Partnership (PPP).

Up to date, PSAV has eight PPP Task Forces (TF), including Coffee, Tea, Vegetables and Fruits, Fisheries, Rice, Spices and Pepper, Livestocks, Agro-Chemicals, which are formed and operated with the participation of 120 organizations, including government agencies, companies, industry associations, research institutes, international and non-governmental organizations.