Agricultural legal framework and regulators: the sector in numbers, national strategy and programmes, the statute book and its 2026 amendments, the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment and the provinces after the 2025 restructuring, market access for foreign investors, choosing a vehicle and the first steps

The sector in numbers

Agriculture remains a pillar of the Vietnamese economy even as its share of output declines. The statistics office (Cục Thống kê) under the Ministry of Finance estimates that the agriculture, forestry and fisheries sector grew by 3.78% in 2025, with agriculture up 3.48%, forestry 5.70% and fisheries 4.41%, and contributed 5.30% of the growth in value added of an economy that grew by 8.02%. The sector accounted for 11.64% of GDP and 25.7% of the 52.4 million people in employment, a share that continues to fall as labour moves into manufacturing and services. Rice output was about 43.5 million tonnes at an average yield of 6.11 tonnes per hectare; live-weight pork output was 5.39 million tonnes; aquaculture output was 6.12 million tonnes, including 1.94 million tonnes of pangasius and 944,400 tonnes of whiteleg shrimp; and 25.6 million cubic metres of timber were harvested from planted forest.

Exports tell the investment story. The Ministry of Agriculture and Environment reported agro-forestry-fishery exports of USD 70.09 billion in 2025, a record and 12% above 2024: agricultural products USD 37.25 billion, forestry products USD 18.5 billion, fishery products USD 11.32 billion and livestock products USD 627.8 million. Coffee earned USD 8.57 billion on 1.5 million tonnes, a rise in value of 52.5% on high world prices; fruit and vegetables USD 8.56 billion, up nearly 20%; and rice about USD 4.1 billion on just over 8 million tonnes, down by more than a quarter in value as prices fell (Customs Department figures). The ministry's 2026 target is USD 73 to 74 billion. In the first nine months of 2026 exports reached USD 56.3 billion, up 7.8%, led by wood products (USD 13.4 billion), seafood (about USD 9.1 billion) and fruit and vegetables (USD 7.3 billion, up 19.9%), while coffee and rice fell on lower prices.

Three features of these figures matter to an investor. First, value is shifting from bulk commodities, whose earnings move with world prices, to horticulture, processed products and seafood, where quality systems and market access protocols decide who can sell. Second, China, the United States, Japan and Korea are the main markets, so the import rules of those countries, as much as Vietnamese law, determine the shape of an export project (Horticulture: fruit, vegetables and flowers and Rice, coffee and key commodity exports). Third, production is still dominated by households farming small plots, so access to raw material at scale depends on contracts with farmers and cooperatives rather than on ownership of land.

Policy: the strategy, the programmes and the 2025 reform resolutions

Agricultural policy is set by Party resolutions and Prime Ministerial decisions that are not themselves rules of private law but determine the content of the lists, plans and budgets that do bind. The Central Committee's Resolution No. 19-NQ/TW of 16 June 2022 on agriculture, farmers and rural areas to 2030, with a vision to 2045, sets the political direction: an ecological, modern and value-chain agriculture, a larger role for enterprises and cooperatives, and the consolidation of land for large-scale production. The Government implements it through the Strategy for Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development for 2021-2030, with a vision to 2050, approved by Decision No. 150/QD-TTg of 28 January 2022, which calls for growth based on productivity, quality and added value rather than volume, the development of commodity regions linked to processing and markets, and a reduction in the sector's environmental footprint.

Several programmes give that strategy concrete form. The best known is the scheme for the sustainable development of one million hectares of high-quality, low-emission rice in the Mekong Delta to 2030, approved by Decision No. 1490/QD-TTg of 27 November 2023, which links certified farming practices, cooperatives and contracted offtakers to lower methane emissions and, potentially, to carbon credits; it is discussed in Rice, coffee and key commodity exports.

Two 2024-2025 Politburo resolutions now drive the legislative programme as much as the sector strategy does. Resolution No. 57-NQ/TW of 22 December 2024 on science, technology, innovation and digital transformation led to the new Law No. 133/2025/QH15 on High Technology, in force from 1 July 2026, which rewrote the rules for high-tech agriculture (Investment incentives and high-tech agriculture). Resolution No. 68-NQ/TW of 4 May 2025 on the private economy drove the cutting of procedures and business conditions that produced the ten-law amending statute described below. The rules are therefore being simplified quickly but unevenly, and every licence condition should be checked against the current consolidated text.

The statute book

Vietnamese agriculture is governed by seven sector statutes, each detailed by Government decrees and ministerial circulars, sitting on top of the general investment, enterprise, land, tax and environmental laws. Law No. 31/2018/QH14 on Crop Production governs plant varieties (recognition, circulation and the conditions for producing and trading seed), fertilisers, cultivation practices, the conversion of crop structures on rice land and post-harvest activities. Law No. 32/2018/QH14 on Animal Husbandry governs breeds, feed, livestock farms (their scale, location and declaration), the treatment of livestock waste and animal welfare. Law No. 41/2013/QH13 on Plant Protection and Quarantine governs pest control, the registration, import and trading of pesticides, and plant quarantine at the border and inland. Law No. 79/2015/QH13 on Veterinary Medicine governs animal disease prevention, quarantine, slaughter control and veterinary drugs. Law No. 18/2017/QH14 on Fisheries governs aquaculture, capture fisheries, fishing vessels, sea areas for farming and fishery product traceability. Law No. 16/2017/QH14 on Forestry governs forest classification (special-use, protection and production forest), forest allocation and lease, timber legality and payments for forest environmental services. Law No. 55/2010/QH12 on Food Safety governs the safety of food from farm to table, shared between three ministries.

Around these sit the Law on Irrigation (No. 08/2017/QH14) and the cross-cutting statutes the rest of this guide explains: Law No. 143/2025/QH15 on Investment (The Law on Investment 2025), Land Law No. 31/2024/QH15 (Land use rights and the Land Law), Law No. 17/2023/QH15 on Cooperatives, Law No. 67/2025/QH15 on Corporate Income Tax and Law No. 48/2024/QH15 on Value Added Tax as amended by Law No. 149/2025/QH15. Agriculture also has its own investment-support decrees, of which the most important are Decree No. 57/2018/ND-CP on encouraging enterprises to invest in agriculture and rural areas and Decree No. 98/2018/ND-CP on linkages in production and consumption, discussed in sections 11.2 and 11.8.

The statute book is moving. Law No. 146/2025/QH15, adopted on 11 December 2025 and in force from 1 January 2026, amended fifteen laws in the agriculture and environment field, including the laws on Crop Production, Plant Protection and Quarantine, Animal Husbandry, Veterinary Medicine, Fisheries and Forestry, shortening time limits, abolishing several licences and moving many decisions to provincial People's Committee chairmen (sections 11.3, 11.4 and 11.7). Then, at its first extraordinary session, in August 2026, the sixteenth National Assembly passed a law of twelve articles amending ten laws on administrative procedures and business conditions in the agriculture and environment field: the laws on Crop Production, Plant Protection and Quarantine, Animal Husbandry, Veterinary Medicine, Fisheries, Geology and Minerals, Water Resources, Irrigation, Hydro-meteorology and Dykes. It takes effect on 1 January 2027. It removes or simplifies procedures and conditions and decentralises decisions; its text and implementing decrees should be read before any licensing plan running into 2027 is fixed. The Law on Forestry and the Law on Food Safety are not among the ten laws.

The regulators after the 2025 restructuring

The Government's reorganisation of 2025 merged the former Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment into the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment (Bộ Nông nghiệp và Môi trường, MAE), which began operating on 1 March 2025. It is the national regulator for crops, livestock, fisheries, forestry, irrigation, rural development and the quality of agricultural products, and it also holds land administration and environmental protection, so a single ministry now sets both the land use plans an agricultural project must fit and the environmental assessment it must pass. Geology and minerals left MAE for the Ministry of Industry and Trade on 15 September 2026 (Minerals legal framework and regulators); agriculture, land and environment did not.

Inside MAE, the work an investor meets is done by specialised departments (cục). The Department of Crop Production and Plant Protection (Cục Trồng trọt và Bảo vệ thực vật, which styles itself the Plant Production and Protection Department in English) combines the former crop production and plant protection departments: it recognises plant varieties, regulates fertilisers and pesticides, runs plant quarantine and issues the growing-area and packing-house codes that export protocols require. The Department of Livestock Production and Animal Health (Cục Chăn nuôi và Thú y) combines the former livestock and animal health departments and regulates breeds, feed, livestock farms, veterinary drugs, animal quarantine and, as MAE's own website shows, aspects of food-safety checks on imports. Separate departments handle fisheries (including fisheries surveillance and the IUU fishing agenda), forestry and forest protection, irrigation, and the quality, processing and market development of agricultural products. Certificates issued before 2025 in the names of predecessor departments remain valid.

Locally, the National Assembly's 2025 reforms reduced the country to 34 provinces and centrally run cities from 1 July 2025 and abolished the district level, leaving a two-tier system of provinces and communes. Each province has a Department of Agriculture and Environment (Sở Nông nghiệp và Môi trường), which issues most agricultural certificates and permits at local level (for example certificates of food safety conditions for establishments under MAE's remit, livestock farm matters and many aquaculture procedures), advises the People's Committee on land leases and land use conversions and houses the land registration office. Commune People's Committees took over many functions of the former districts, and the rural credit rules now define rural areas by reference to communes. Investors should check that certificates, lease decisions and incentive records issued by pre-merger authorities have been taken over by the new province.

Other ministries share the field, as the table below shows. The Ministry of Finance leads on investment registration, tax, customs and the budget support promised by the agricultural incentive decrees; the Ministry of Industry and Trade on trade, including rice export certificates and trade remedies; the Ministry of Health on the safety of many processed foods and additives; the Ministry of Science and Technology and the provincial science departments on high-tech status; and the State Bank of Vietnam on agricultural credit policy. Customs clears goods at the border, but plant and animal quarantine is performed by MAE's quarantine units.

Market access for foreign investors in agriculture

Vietnam applies a negative list. Under Article 8 of Law No. 143/2025/QH15, foreign investors enjoy the same market access as Vietnamese investors except in the business lines listed in Appendix I of Decree No. 96/2026/ND-CP, which closes 23 lines and opens 62 only on conditions (Market access for foreign investors; FAQ 1). Crop cultivation, horticulture, livestock farming, aquaculture, agricultural services and the processing of agricultural, forestry and fishery products are not on the closed list, so a foreign investor may hold 100% of a company that grows durian, raises pigs, farms shrimp or runs a coffee roastery (FAQ 12).

The closed part of Appendix I includes marine fishing in Vietnamese waters and the collection and trading of certain wild plants and animals. A foreign investor that wants to buy, process and export seafood can do so; what it cannot do is own and operate the fishing fleet. The predecessor list in Decree No. 31/2021/ND-CP also closed the investigation, assessment and exploitation of natural forests, including the management of gene funds of crop varieties, livestock and micro-organisms used in agriculture, and an investor whose project touches natural forest or genetic resources should check the corresponding line of the current Appendix I. The conditional part of Appendix I must be read line by line against the business lines the company will register, since a single conditional line governs the structure of the whole company.

Two further filters apply. First, Article 7 of the Law on Investment makes certain lines conditional business lines for every investor, foreign or domestic: in agriculture these have long included the production and trading of plant varieties and animal breeds, fertilisers, pesticides, animal and aquatic feed and veterinary drugs, and several fisheries activities, each with conditions set by the sector law, and the current Appendix IV should be checked for each line (FAQ 91). Second, Article 24 makes certain projects subject to investment policy approval: any project that seeks State land without auction or tender or a change of land use, the conversion of protection or special-use forest or wet-rice land above set areas, and, for foreign investors only, afforestation projects (Investment policy approval). Land itself is the third constraint and the most important one in practice: a company that follows the foreign-investor procedures cannot take transfers of agricultural land from households and individuals and depends on a State lease, a joint venture contribution or the acquisition of a landholding company (FAQ 48; Agricultural land and land accumulation).

Trade is the last checkpoint. A foreign-invested company that sells what it produces needs no trading licence, but one that imports, wholesales or retails goods it does not make needs a business licence under Decree No. 342/2026/ND-CP from 18 October 2026, and rice and sugar are treated as excluded goods in that regime (Market access for foreign investors). Rice export is a separate licensed business, governed since 1 October 2026 by Decree No. 365/2026/ND-CP, which replaced Decree No. 107/2018/ND-CP, and described in Rice, coffee and key commodity exports.

Choosing a vehicle

Most foreign agribusinesses use a Vietnamese limited liability company, wholly owned or held with a Vietnamese partner, because only a company can hold a State land lease, receive a contribution of land use rights, sign long-term farming contracts in its own name and claim incentives (Choosing a business vehicle; FAQ 11). A wholly foreign-owned company gives control of quality, brand and export compliance and suits processing plants, packhouses, greenhouse estates on leased State land and input-supply businesses. A joint venture suits a project whose land, licences or farmer relationships sit with a Vietnamese partner, typically a provincial agricultural company, a former State farm company or a family processor that can contribute land held with transferable rights; the contribution must be valued, notarised and registered (How foreign-invested companies access land).

A business cooperation contract (BCC) lets a foreign investor share the output or profit of a Vietnamese party's farm or plant without forming a company, but a BCC with a foreign party needs an Investment Registration Certificate, gives no separate legal personality and leaves the land with the Vietnamese party (Forms of investment). An acquisition of a Vietnamese agricultural company brings its land, licences, growing-area codes and supplier base, and requires registration under Article 21 of the Law on Investment where foreign ownership crosses or rises above 50%, where the target is in a line with market access conditions, or where it holds land in border or coastal communes, on islands or in defence-sensitive areas, as many coastal aquaculture targets do.

Two structural points are often missed. The 50% threshold in Article 20 of the Law on Investment decides whether a company invests as a foreign or a domestic investor, and Article 3(46) of the Land Law defines a foreign-invested economic organisation by reference to those foreign-investor procedures, so a joint venture at or below 50% foreign ownership is a domestic land user under Article 4(1)(b) that may take transfers of farmers' land under an approved plan (section 11.3); the threshold counts indirect holdings through a foreign-majority Vietnamese company, so the cap table should be checked before a structure depends on it. And raw material at scale usually comes not from land the company holds but from linkage contracts with cooperatives and households under Decree No. 98/2018/ND-CP, in which the company supplies inputs and technical standards and buys the crop; their enforceability and the problem of side-selling are discussed in Agro-processing, food safety, cooperatives and contract farming.

First steps for a foreign agricultural investor

1. Map the activity to business linesList every activity by VSIC code, from farming and processing to input supply and export, and check each against Appendix I of Decree No. 96/2026/ND-CP and the conditional business lines under Article 7.
2. Check planning and landConfirm with the provincial Department of Agriculture and Environment that the area is planned for the use, whether it includes rice land or forest, and which land route is realistic.
3. Identify the sector licencesSeed, fertiliser, pesticide, feed, veterinary-drug, livestock-farm, aquaculture and food-safety conditions each have their own dossier and authority; allow for the changes from 1 January 2027.
4. Choose and form the vehicleObtain the IRC (or incorporate first and obtain the IRC within 12 months), open the investment capital account and register the company; seek investment policy approval first where Article 24 applies.
5. Record the incentivesIdentify the CIT, land rent, import duty and support-decree incentives the project qualifies for and have them recorded in the IRC or lease, as explained in section 11.2.
6. Secure raw materialNegotiate linkage contracts with cooperatives and households, or a land contribution with a partner, before committing to processing capacity.
7. Obtain environmental and construction approvalsDetermine whether an environmental impact assessment, licence or registration applies, and obtain construction and fire-safety approvals.
8. Prepare for exportRegister growing-area and packing-house codes, food-safety and traceability systems and any importing-country registrations before the first harvest is due.