Promoting Sustainable Agricultural Value Chains in ASEAN (ASEAN AgriTrade)

CONTEXT

The free movement of goods and services is a key aspiration of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and a cornerstone of the common market of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC). Amongst other things, ASEAN is working towards strengthening its agricultural production and trade in accordance with regional and international standards on quality and sustainability. However, implementation of quality standards in ASEAN remains limited and reduces opportunities to tap into global value chains and expand into markets within and outside of the region.

OBJECTIVE

To improve the framework conditions for the implementation of sustainability standards in agricultural value chains with a focus on climate-relevant aspects within the ASEAN region.

APPROACHES

The project supports the promotion of sustainable agricultural value chains in ASEAN in the following areas:

• Enhancing the cooperation between relevant ASEAN bodies and the private sector;
• Gender mainstreaming in relevant ASEAN strategy documents;
• Improving the prerequisites for private sector engagement in three of the CLMV countries, including climate-smart agriculture practices;
• Conducting awareness campaigns on the health and ecological benefits, including climate benefits, of sustainable agricultural products in the CLMV countries; and
• Compiling lessons learnt on the implementation of standards on quality and sustainability for decision-makers in the CLMV countries, including climate-smart agriculture practices.

RESULTS SO FAR

• Gender mainstreaming. Recommendations were made to integrate gender aspects in the Strategic Plan of Actions for the ASEAN Cooperation on Crops (SPA-Crops) and project activities.
• The Agrinnovation Fund in ASEAN (AIF). The AIF was initiated to foster innovation in the agricultural value chains in CLMV. AIF has onboarded 29* development partnerships with private sector to enhance production and improve safety, quality and sustainability.
  *Six partnerships are supported under the Climate Resilience of Agricultural Systems in Cambodia and Viet Nam (CRAS) project.
• General assessment on ASEAN standards. The implementation status of ASEAN GAP and ASEAN Standards for Organic Agriculture (ASOA) in 10 AMS was assessed and recommendations to improve the implementation of these standards were made.
• Updating Lao GAP and standards for Organic Agriculture (OA) with the Lao Department of Agriculture. Furthermore, 30 farm advisors participated in pilot training measures on improved/updated GAP/OA standards.
• VietGAP Guidelines. Development of VietGAP Guidelines for 10 key fruits and online training courses and TOTs held to build capacity for stakeholders to implement the Guidelines.
• Promotion of organic standards in Viet Nam. Together with partner organised a series of events to promote organic agricultural products, review the three-year implementation of Decree No. 09/2018/ND-CP on Organic Agriculture, and develop organic certification bodies.
• Support regional exchange platform on climate-related topic. The project facilitates support for the ASEAN Climate Resilience Network (ASEAN-CRN), and the ASEAN Negotiating Group for Agriculture (ANGA) so that it can continue to represent ASEAN positions on agriculture in the context of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
• E-learning course on climate change negotiation. The course provides a basic understanding of climate change negotiations in the scope of the UNFCCC for agricultural stakeholders. Link to the course: https://t1p.de/uhfb8

FINANCED BY

German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)

COUNTRY

Regional (10 ASEAN Member States (AMS), and National (Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Vietnam)

PROJECT PARTNERS

Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) through the ASEAN Sectoral Working Group on Crops (ASWGC), other relevant line agencies, the private sector and civil society organisations

PROJECT DURATION

08/2019 – 12/2023

MORE INFORMATION

www.thai-german-cooperation.info, www.asean-agrifood.org