Agriculture

Why agriculture needs a chapter of its own

Agriculture remains a pillar of the Vietnamese economy even as its share of output declines. The statistics office estimates that agriculture, forestry and fisheries grew by 3.78% in 2025 and accounted for 11.64% of GDP and 25.7% of employment, and the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment (MAE) reported record agro-forestry-fishery exports of USD 70.09 billion, 12% above 2024. Coffee earned USD 8.57 billion, fruit and vegetables USD 8.56 billion and seafood USD 11.32 billion, and exports in the first nine months of 2026 reached USD 56.3 billion, up 7.8%. Value is shifting from bulk commodities, whose earnings follow world prices, towards horticulture, processed products and seafood, where quality systems and the protocols of importing countries decide who can sell.

For a foreign investor the sector is unusually open and unusually constrained at the same time. Crop cultivation, horticulture, livestock, aquaculture and the processing of agricultural, forestry and fishery products are open to 100% foreign ownership, and farm and processing income can be exempt from corporate income tax or taxed at reduced rates. Production, however, is still dominated by households farming small plots, a foreign-invested company cannot buy their land, and almost every input, farm and export consignment passes through a licence, a register or an importing country's protocol. This chapter takes those rules in the order an investor usually meets them, beginning with Agricultural legal framework and regulators.

The statute book, the regulators and market access

Seven sector statutes govern the field: Law No. 31/2018/QH14 on Crop Production, Law No. 32/2018/QH14 on Animal Husbandry, Law No. 41/2013/QH13 on Plant Protection and Quarantine, Law No. 79/2015/QH13 on Veterinary Medicine, Law No. 18/2017/QH14 on Fisheries, Law No. 16/2017/QH14 on Forestry and Law No. 55/2010/QH12 on Food Safety. Each is detailed by decrees and circulars and sits on top of the general investment, enterprise, land, tax and environmental laws. The statute book is moving quickly. Law No. 146/2025/QH15, adopted on 11 December 2025, amended fifteen laws in the agriculture and environment field from 1 January 2026, shortening time limits, abolishing several licences and moving many decisions to provincial People's Committee chairpersons. A further law amending ten laws on administrative procedures and business conditions in the field, including those on crop production, plant protection, animal husbandry, veterinary medicine and fisheries, was passed in August 2026 and takes effect on 1 January 2027. A licence condition taken from an older decree should therefore always be checked against the current text.

Since 1 March 2025 the national regulator has been the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, formed from the former agriculture and environment ministries, so a single ministry now sets both the land use plans an agricultural project must fit and the environmental assessment it must pass. Its Department of Crop Production and Plant Protection deals with varieties, fertilisers, pesticides, plant quarantine and export protocols, and its Department of Livestock Production and Animal Health with breeds, feed, livestock farms, veterinary drugs and animal quarantine. Locally, the Departments of Agriculture and Environment of the 34 provinces created on 1 July 2025 issue most permits, and the communes have taken over many functions of the abolished districts. The Ministries of Finance, Industry and Trade, Health and Science and Technology share the field. The statute book, the regulators and a decision guide for choosing a vehicle are set out in Agricultural legal framework and regulators.

Market access is decided by a negative list. Under Article 8 of Law No. 143/2025/QH15 on Investment and Appendix I of Decree No. 96/2026/ND-CP, marine fishing in Vietnamese waters is closed to foreign investors, while buying, processing and exporting seafood remain open. A foreign investor's afforestation project needs investment policy approval, and seed, fertiliser, pesticide, feed and veterinary-drug businesses are conditional business lines for every investor, foreign or domestic. Most foreign agribusinesses use a wholly owned company or a joint venture with a Vietnamese partner that holds land, licences or farmer relationships. The general rules are in Market access for foreign investors and Investment policy approval.

Incentives and agricultural land

The most valuable incentive for agriculture is relief from corporate income tax. Under Article 4 of Law No. 67/2025/QH15 on Corporate Income Tax, income from fishing, and an enterprise's income from crops, planted forest, livestock, aquaculture and the processing of agricultural and aquatic products in areas with extremely difficult socio-economic conditions, is exempt; the same income is taxed at 10% for the life of the activity in difficult areas and at 15% elsewhere. Seed and breed production, forest planting and post-harvest preservation pay 10% wherever they are located, and a new project in a high-tech agricultural zone pays 10% for 15 years with four years' exemption and nine years at 50%. Law No. 133/2025/QH15 on High Technology, in force from 1 July 2026, ended the separate high-tech agricultural enterprise certificate: certificates already issued keep their incentives until they expire, and new applicants qualify, if at all, as high-tech product manufacturers or as Group 1 or Group 2 high-tech enterprises. Decree No. 57/2018/ND-CP still governs land rent relief and cash support, from exemption for the whole lease term in the most difficult areas to 11 years' exemption elsewhere in rural areas, and its replacement was still in draft in 2026. Unprocessed produce sold by its grower is outside VAT, while fertiliser and pesticides bear 5%. The whole package, with a comparison of four sites, is in Investment incentives and high-tech agriculture; the general tax rules are in Corporate income tax and VAT and e-invoicing.

Land is the constraint that shapes most agricultural structures. A company that follows the foreign-investor procedures may lease agricultural land from the State for an approved project, paying rent annually or once for the whole term, may receive land use rights as a capital contribution and may acquire a company that holds farmland, but it may not take transfers of agricultural land outside industrial parks, clusters and high-tech parks under Article 28 of Land Law No. 31/2024/QH15. It may lease land use rights from farming households under Article 37(1)(d), and leases and production cooperation are recognised methods of concentrating land under Article 192. Vietnamese individuals may accumulate up to 15 times the allocation quota for each land type, and domestic companies may take transfers under an agricultural land use plan approved, since 1 July 2025, by the commune-level People's Committee chairman. Rice land and forest are protected: converting specialised rice land to non-agricultural use requires permission and a payment of at least 50% of the area multiplied by the rice land price, and converting forest requires a provincial policy decision and replacement afforestation money. These rules, with a worked 400-hectare estate, are in Agricultural land and land accumulation, which builds on How foreign-invested companies access land and Land rent, land prices and Resolution 254.

Crop inputs and horticulture

Every seed, fertiliser and pesticide sold in Vietnam needs a market authorisation. Varieties of main crop species, such as rice and maize, may be produced, traded or imported only after recognition for circulation, now valid for 20 years for annual crops and 25 years for perennial crops, while other varieties are self-declared on the Department's portal. New varieties are protected under the Law on Intellectual Property for 25 years for trees and vines and 20 years for other varieties. Fertiliser needs a five-year recognition decision and its production a five-year certificate from the provincial chairperson, but since 2026 fertiliser trading has needed no certificate. Pesticides may be used only if they are on the permitted list in Circular No. 75/2025/TT-BNNMT as amended, which bans 31 active ingredients, and registration lasts five years. Planting materials, fresh fruit and fresh potato and sweet potato tubers need a pest risk analysis before they are first imported, so a new origin can take years to open. A foreign group may register products through a representative office or branch in the sector, but it needs a Vietnamese company with the required business licence to import and distribute them. See Seeds, fertilisers, pesticides and plant quarantine.

Horticulture is the fastest-growing part of the export trade, and much of its law is the law of the importing country. Fruit and vegetable exports reached a record USD 8.56 billion in 2025, durian alone about USD 3.86 billion, and China took roughly 63% to 64% of the trade. Protocol markets, above all China but also the United States, Korea, Australia and Japan, accept only produce traced to approved growing-area and packing-house codes. These are governed by Decree No. 38/2026/ND-CP and, since 31 July 2026, by Resolution No. 36/2026/NQ-CP, which moved issuance online to the commune People's Committee and suspended the 10-hectare minimum. A code is suspended market by market after a breach, the holder has 60 days to report corrective action, and a code revoked for a market cannot be re-applied for there for 12 months. Durian for China also needs cadmium and auramine O results from laboratories China recognises, the EU checks 20% of Vietnamese durian consignments, and most fruit for the United States is irradiated in Vietnam. Flowers, greenhouses, VietGAP, organic rules and the investment models, with a worked packhouse example, are in Horticulture: fruit, vegetables and flowers.

Rice, coffee and the other commodities

Rice is the only agricultural commodity with an export licensing regime. Since 1 October 2026 it has been governed by Decree No. 365/2026/ND-CP of 23 September 2026, which replaced Decree No. 107/2018/ND-CP. An exporter of ordinary rice, whether foreign-invested or Vietnamese, needs a certificate of eligibility from the Ministry of Industry and Trade, at least one dedicated warehouse and one milling facility, owned or leased, and a circulation reserve, while exporters of organic, parboiled and micronutrient-fortified rice are exempt. Certificates issued under the old decree remain valid until they expire, and from 1 January 2028 exporters will be credit-rated on a 100-point scale used to allocate centralised export contracts. The one million hectare low-emission rice programme covered about 354,800 hectares by March 2026, and carbon credits from such projects may be transferred abroad only under Decree No. 112/2026/ND-CP, through the national registry.

Coffee needs no export licence; its main legal risk is the EU Deforestation Regulation, which applies to large and medium operators from 30 December 2026 and to most micro and small enterprises from 30 June 2027. Vietnam is classified as low risk, but the EU operator still needs the geolocation of every plot and evidence of legal production, so the Vietnamese exporter must deliver traceability to the farm. The EVFTA rice quota, pepper, cashew, rubber, tea and cassava, US trade remedies and certificates of origin are covered in Rice, coffee and key commodity exports, with the customs mechanics in Customs and import duties.

Livestock, aquaculture, processing and contract farming

Law No. 146/2025/QH15 amended the Laws on Animal Husbandry, Veterinary Medicine and Fisheries from 1 January 2026 and moved many approvals to provincial chairpersons and communes. A large-scale livestock farm needs a certificate of eligibility from the agency designated by the provincial chairperson: the dossier is appraised within 5 working days, the farm is assessed by a team set up within 15 working days, and the certificate issues within 5 working days of a successful assessment, with surveillance every 36 months. The site must first fit the province's livestock density decision and prohibited areas. Complete and concentrated feeds are self-announced, supplementary feeds are appraised before announcement, and antibiotics for disease prevention in feed were phased out by 31 December 2025. Marine aquaculture now needs a plan or project and an allocation of sea area for up to 50 years, with extensions totalling up to 20 years. The EU's yellow card for illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, in place since October 2017, had not been lifted at 16 October 2026, and US anti-dumping orders apply to frozen pangasius fillets and warmwater shrimp. See Livestock, aquaculture and animal health.

Most foreign investors in the sector combine a processing plant or packhouse with contract farming, so the processing rules matter to almost all of them. Food safety is governed by Law No. 55/2010/QH12 and Decree No. 15/2018/ND-CP, because Decree No. 46/2026/ND-CP, issued to replace it, was suspended by Resolution No. 15/2026/NQ-CP until an amended Food Safety Law and its decree take effect. A processing plant needs a three-year food safety certificate unless it holds a valid GMP, HACCP, ISO 22000, IFS, BRC or FSSC 22000 certificate; most pre-packaged food is self-declared and may be sold at once; and labels follow Decree No. 37/2026/ND-CP. Supply usually comes through cooperatives under Law No. 17/2023/QH15, in which foreign-invested companies and foreign individual investors together must be fewer than 35% of official members and no official member may contribute more than 30% of charter capital, and through linkage contracts under Decree No. 98/2018/ND-CP, which supports qualifying contracts of at least five years, or three for crops with a cycle under one year. Side-selling is the main commercial risk, and the 8% cap on penalties in the Commercial Law applies between traders. See Agro-processing, food safety, cooperatives and contract farming and Commercial contracts in Vietnam.

How to use this chapter

Every reader should start with Agricultural legal framework and regulators, which explains the regulators, market access and the choice of vehicle. After that the routes differ. A horticulture exporter should read the horticulture section next, then Seeds, fertilisers, pesticides and plant quarantine for pesticide limits and quarantine, the agro-processing section for contract farming and food safety, and the incentives section. An estate or plantation investor should read Agricultural land and land accumulation and Investment incentives and high-tech agriculture before choosing a site, then the section on its crop: horticulture for fruit and flowers, or Rice, coffee and key commodity exports for rice, coffee and rubber, where the EU Deforestation Regulation ties traceability to land use rights. An input supplier should read the seeds, fertilisers and pesticides section and the market access and trading points in section 11.1, together with Branches and representative offices.

A livestock, dairy or aquaculture investor should read Livestock, aquaculture and animal health, then the land section for farm and water-surface land and the incentives section for the support available under Decree No. 57/2018/ND-CP, including support for concentrated dairy and beef cattle farms. An agro-processor should read Agro-processing, food safety, cooperatives and contract farming, the incentives section and, if it exports, the horticulture and commodity sections. A lender or acquirer should read the land section on the origin of the land, the routes open to a foreign-invested company and which land use rights can be mortgaged to a credit institution licensed in Vietnam, the incentives section on incentives recorded in the IRC and the lease, and the sector section of the target, together with Due diligence in Vietnam and Title due diligence and security over land.

Each section ends with the related FAQs, the official sources and a question to put to Lawbot about your own facts; Lawbot gives legal information, not legal advice. The position is stated at 16 October 2026. The law amending ten agriculture and environment laws from 1 January 2027, the draft amended Land Law and the draft amended Food Safety Law due before the National Assembly at its session from October 2026, and any replacement of Decree No. 57/2018/ND-CP should be checked before any transaction closes.