Change to avoid 'bitterness' in border trading with China

China is a potential market, consuming a very large volume of agricultural products annually, accounting for about 80% of Vietnam's export.

Talking to the Vietnam Agriculture News about the difficulties in transporting and exporting agricultural products to the Chinese market, Director of Hoang Phat Fruit Company Nguyen Khac Huy said that in order to minimize the congestion and jams of lorries carrying agricultural products for export at the northern border gates with China, businesses should switch to exporting by sea routes.

Besides, the official export by sea routes will also help businesses reduce risks according to warnings and recommendations from Chinese authority.

However, Nguyen Khac Huy said that currently, the export of agricultural products by sea routes of ​​Vietnam is facing a serious problem, that is lacking of refrigerated containers because businesses do not order containers in advance. Businesses can only consume goods for farmers if they have containers.

China is implementing the Zero Covid policy. In case their authorities detect SARS-CoV-2 on shipments by sea routes, those shipments will not be able to clear customs and be rejected, but cannot be turned around for consumption in the domestic market.

Director of Hoang Phat Fruit Company proposed that ministries, agencies and industry associations need to find solutions to have refrigerated containers for export by sea routes. Authority should introduce policies to support container rental fees at a reasonable level.

Huy also suggested that the Vietnamese government continues to promote negotiations with Chinese customs to speed up customs clearance.

“Exporting goods in general and agricultural products in particular to international markets needs a specific process to be able to meet the standards and regulations of that market, not only China,” Huy said.

Chinese is still a potential market, consuming a very large volume of Vietnamese agricultural products. Annually, the market of 1.4 billion people accounts for about 80% of Vietnam's agricultural export market share.

“China is the country among the top developed economies with the largest population in the world. Vietnam exports agricultural products to China in extremely large volume. Vietnamese people and businesses need to meet the requirements set by Chinese partner instead of putting conditions on them," Huy noted.

He added that, Vietnamese government should negotiate to bring benefits both for Vietnamese farmers and Chinese consumers.

Vietnam is exporting fruits to high quality markets such as Japan or Korea, meeting very strict regulations on pesticide residues. At the moment, China does not have these regulations, but Vietnam needs to be ready when China requests.

“More attention should be paid to product quality, not to the goal of increasing output as before," said Nguyen Khac Huy.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, in the past two years, the Covid-19 pandemic has had a great impact on export transport. The cost has increased many times compared to before. Particularly, sea freight rates increased up to 400 - 500%, besides the serious problem of lacking of containers for export transport.