Vietnam has enough rice and meat of all kinds to meet domestic demand and contribute to the global supply through its exports, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ spokesperson Le Thi Thu Hang has affirmed.

Hang was speaking at the ministry’s regular press conference in Hanoi on Thursday in response to a Sputnik reporter’s question about Vietnam’s reaction to Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba’s recent statement that Vietnam might be affected when the agreement on Ukraine's grain exports via the Black Sea was suspended by Russia.

On October 30, Kuleba warned on Twitter that the suspension would cause two million tons of grains that Ukraine intends to export to Vietnam and other countries to be stuck at Ukrainian ports.

“Moscow promises free 500 thousand tons of grain (most likely stolen from Ukraine) to other countries over the next 4 months. But by ruining the grain corridor Russia blocks 2 million (!) tons of grain for Algeria, Yemen, Vietnam, Bangladesh & others right now,” Kuleba wrote on the social media site.

The Vietnamese government always pays attention to and considers national food security as it is an especially important task in the country’s industrialization and modernization process, ensuring the country’s stability and sustainable development, the spokeswoman emphasized.

“Vietnam can produce 41-43 million tons of rice and 6.5 million tons of various meat types every year, satisfying the domestic demand,” Hang said, citing official statistics.

As one of the world’s leading farm produce exporters, Vietnam has also made significant contributions to the joint efforts to address global food security challenges, the spokesperson added. 

“As a responsible member of the United Nations and the international community, Vietnam is always ready to share its experience in food security to other countries and hopes that every country will strengthen their international cooperation in addressing this issue,” Hang stated.

Over the first ten months of 2022, the total export-import turnover of Vietnam’s agricultural, forestry and fishery products reached about $82.1 billion, up 10.2 percent from a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Earlier, on October 29, Russia halted its participation in an agreement to export grains from Ukrainian ports and announced that it could not guarantee the safety of civilian ships passing through the Black Sea because the Russian fleet in Crimea was previously attacked.

However, the Russian Ministry of Defense on Wednesday announced that Moscow would return to the agreement after receiving from Ukraine a written guarantee in which Kiev pledged not to launch military operations against Russia using its seaports as well as the humanitarian corridors, according to Russia’s TASS news agency. 

Earlier on July 22, Russia and Ukraine signed a United Nations-backed deal to resume Ukraine’s grain exports through the Black Sea, which had stalled since Russia launched its ‘special military operation’ on Ukrainian territory on February 24.   

The deal was aimed to allow the delivery of millions of tons of grain from blockaded Black Sea ports, preventing the threat of a global food crisis, according to the Guardian.

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