Promotion of Sustainable Agricultural Value Chains in ASEAN (ASEAN AgriTrade II)

Photo: GIZ/Vu Chau Ngoc

CONTEXT

The agriculture and food industry is crucial for most member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and essential for achieving the ASEAN Economic Community’s (AEC) vision of a seamless market with free-flowing goods and services. However, the agri-food industry encounters several complex challenges, such as regulatory inconsistencies, a lack of harmonised standards, and insufficient public-private coordination. Another challenge for ASEAN’s emerging economies like Cambodia, Lao PDR, and Viet Nam (CLV) is implementing further harmonisation measures to promote sustainable and resilient agricultural value chains.

Building on the successful implementation of its first phase, the ASEAN AgriTrade II project, in collaboration with stakeholders and partners in ASEAN, aims to address this challenge by ensuring that ASEAN Member States (AMS) implement harmonisation measures to meet sustainability and quality standards in regional and global agricultural value chains. This initiativewill open new markets and provide new incentives to the private sector for import and export.

OBJECTIVE

The ASEAN region has implemented harmonisation measures to comply with quality and climate standards in both regional and global agricultural value chains.

APPROACHES

The project will contribute to enhancing the Strategic Plan for ASEAN Cooperation on Crops and align with the ASEAN Vision for Food, Agriculture, and Forestry for 2021-2025. It will also support the follow-on plan.

During the implementation, the project advances climate-responsive agricultural trade in ASEAN through the following actions:

• Aligning and coordinating strategies among ASEAN Member States and regional actors to harmonise quality and environmental standards in agricultural trade.
• Promoting market-based agricultural innovations focusing on decarbonisation, private industry participation, and digitalisation in Cambodia, the Lao PDR, and Viet Nam.
• Enhancing conditions for private engagement, including the adoption of climate-smart agriculture practices.
• Facilitating knowledge exchange on climate-sensitive cultivation, environmentally responsible farming, and food security among ASEAN Member States.
• Adopting a gender-sensitive approach to empower women and youth, addressing gender disparities, and influencing ASEAN policies related to agriculture, trade, and climate.

FINANCED BY

German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)

COUNTRY

ASEAN Member States (AMS), with pilot activities in Cambodia, Lao PDR, and Viet Nam

PROJECT PARTNERS

The project cooperates closely with the Food, Agriculture and Forestry Division (FAFD) of the ASEAN Secretariat as the main coordination mechanism to support the ASEAN Sectoral Working Group Crops (ASWGC) and aligned expert platforms such as the Expert Working Group on Good Agricultural Practices (EWG-GAP).

PROJECT DURATION

February 2024 – January 2027

MORE INFORMATION

• Advancing climate-responsive agricultural value chains in the ASEAN region https://www.giz.de/en/worldwide/153063.html