Tracking a decade of food system transformation in Vietnam's Mekong Delta: Production, consumption, and nutrition

Ky The Hoang^1,2*Liz Ignowski³Ben Belton^4,5Tuyen Thi Thanh Huynh⁶Thanh Thi Duong⁶Quoc Minh Nguyen⁶Son Duy Nguyen⁷Phuong Mai Tuan⁷Mai Tuyet Truong⁷Phuong Thi Thanh Dinh⁷Murshed-e-Jahan Khondker⁸

• ¹WorldFish, Bayan Lepas, Malaysia
• ²University of Galway, Galway, Ireland
• ³AVRDC World Vegetable Center East and Southeast Asia, Bangkok, Thailand
• ⁴CGIAR International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington, United States
• ⁵Michigan State University, East Lansing, United States
• ⁶Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture - Asia Hub, Hanoi, Vietnam
• ⁷Vietnam National Institute of Nutrition, Hanoi, Vietnam
• ⁸WorldFish Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh

Global deltas, including Vietnam's Mekong River Delta (MRD), are fertile, densely populated, and vital for food production, yet their low-lying terrain leaves them highly vulnerable to climate change. By utilizing national data from the Vietnam Household Living Standards Surveys (VHLSS), Statistical Year Books (SYB), and General Nutrition Surveys (GNS), this study examines the changes in food production, consumption patterns, diet, and nutrition in the region from 2010 to 2020. The MRD remains the largest food production region in the country across all food groups, with output far exceeding local nutrient needs, yet paradoxically exhibits the second lowest dietary diversity nationally. Agricultural production has shifted from staples toward fruit and aquatic products, but a critical production-consumption disconnect driven by market orientation has led diets toward more animal-source foods, sugar-sweetened products, and food away from home (FAFH). While nutrient adequacy improved in energy, protein, and retinol, it declined in calcium, and household consumption of self-produced food dropped dramatically across all food groups. The dietary transition contributed to substantial improvements in child nutrition status in all forms, with stunting rates decreasing by nearly 16%, underweight by 10%, and wasting by 4%. However, it also led to the highest increases in overweight and obesity rates nationally, rising threefold among children aged 6-19 years (23.8%) and adults (34% for both men and women), with sugar-sweetened beverage consumption increasing fourfold. This production-consumption paradox in which agricultural abundance coexists with poor dietary quality, demonstrates the limitations of production-focused policies and underscores the urgent need for integrated food system approaches that align production with sustainable, healthy diets under the pressures of climate change and urbanization.