Building agricultural export value chains: Lessons from New Zealand

During his working visit to Hanoi, Mr. Hamish Marr, New Zealand’s Special Agricultural Trade Envoy (SATE), spoke with Viet Nam Agriculture & Nature Newspaper about New Zealand’s experience in building sustainable agricultural export value chains.

With a population of just over 5 million yet exports to more than 120 markets, New Zealand is regarded as a global model for quality management, supply-chain cooperation, and value-added agricultural development.

Transparency in quality as the foundation of market trust

According to Mr. Hamish Marr, the core factor that helps New Zealand maintain its position in international agricultural trade lies in its traceability and quality-assurance system, synchronized from farm to table.

“Our traceability system has been built and refined over many years and continues to evolve. For New Zealand, meeting market standards is not a goal but a condition for survival,” he said.

This system operates on two interconnected levels: Government-to-government, covering all regulations on food safety and quarantine for plants and animals, strictly supervised by the authorities.

Business-to-business, which includes voluntary standards such as Halal or Organic, with independent audits and shared data systems.

Together, these two levels form a comprehensive quality-assurance network. Today, New Zealand farmers can trace almost all agricultural inputs and outputs directly on their mobile phones, with data updated in real time.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment’s report in September 2025, Viet Nam’s total export turnover of agriculture, forestry, and fisheries reached USD 52.31 billion, up 14 per cent from the same period in 2024. Of this, agricultural products accounted for USD 28.51 billion, seafood USD 8.12 billion, forestry products USD 13.41 billion, and livestock USD 447.5 million.

These figures reflect Viet Nam’s strong growth potential in agricultural exports. However, to sustain this position in the long term, transparency in quality and traceability must become mandatory standards rather than isolated efforts.

Cooperatives: The core of a sustainable value chain

Sharing his experience in production organization, Mr. Marr said the strength of New Zealand’s agriculture lies not in scale but in the spirit of cooperation and chain organization.

“We have only five million people, yet we export globally. That is possible only because farmers work together. A cooperative doesn’t need to be big or rich; it needs unity and a shared goal,” he said.

According to him, three factors determine a cooperative’s success: collective spirit, visionary leadership, and perseverance in operations. Small cooperatives in New Zealand often link or merge to reach sufficient scale, allowing investment in factories, cold storage, and internationally certified testing centers.

This model is gradually being applied in Viet Nam. The same September 2025 report notes that the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment is implementing programs to support cooperatives in linking with processing enterprises, forming traceable, standardized agricultural chains - a foundation for reducing the risk of “bumper crops, falling prices.”

Three pillars to elevate Vietnamese agricultural value

Beyond production organization, Viet Nam’s larger challenge lies in maintaining and increasing product value through deep processing, logistics improvement, and national brand building.

As a country located far from major consumption centers, New Zealand always prioritizes deep processing and advanced logistics technologies to preserve post-harvest value.

“We always strive to export the highest-value products to reduce logistics costs. For dairy, powder-drying technology extends shelf life; for fruit, cooperatives invest in large cold-storage facilities for shared use,” Mr. Marr explained.

In Viet Nam, post-harvest losses are estimated at 15 - 25 per cent for fruits and vegetables, 10 - 12 per cent for seafood, and about 8 per cent for rice.

If these losses were cut in half, the added value could reach billions of U.S. dollars annually, equivalent to the current net profit of the entire agricultural-processing sector.

According to Mr. Marr, amid constantly shifting technical barriers and tariffs, market diversification and product differentiation are vital strategies.

“If I were a Vietnamese farmer, I would strive to make the market come to my products rather than simply bringing my goods to sell,” he said.

Along with diversification, Mr. Marr stressed the importance of a national brand: “A brand is not just a logo or a slogan; it’s an image deeply embedded in consumers’ minds. When you think of France, you think of wine; when you think of Canada, you think of pure food. Viet Nam can absolutely achieve the same if it defines its three core values and promotes them consistently across all fields,” he said.

Currently, the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment is developing a national agricultural brand, aiming to position Vietnamese farm products by quality, reputation, and sustainability.

From New Zealand’s experience, Mr. Hamish Marr believes that agricultural strength lies not in scale but in transparent organization, cooperative spirit, and post-harvest value enhancement. With its diverse production base, abundant workforce, and rapid transformation, Vietnam can fully achieve the USD 70 billion export target for agriculture, forestry, and fisheries in 2025 if it synchronously implements the three pillars of quality - cooperation - processing.