Lang Son Customs: Efforts to release agricultural products and fresh fruits

	Lang Son Customs: Proactively support exports of fresh lychee
	Tan Thanh Customs (Lang Son Customs Department): Preventing a hot spot of smuggling
	Lang Son Customs coordinates with other agencies to speed up customs clearance at border gates

A separate path for export of fresh fruits

Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, the import-export turnover of Lang Son province still reached nearly US$2 billion, up 41% year-on-year.

Lang Son Customs Department said that, in the first five months of the year, there were 30 localities exporting fruits through the border gates of Lang Son province, mainly rambutan, banana, watermelon, jackfruit, longan, dragon fruit, mango, lychee.

Particularly,exported dragon fruit products reachedover 454,000 tons, jackfruit 226,000 tons and fresh lychee nearly 13,000 tons.

To ensure the freshness of exported agricultural products and maintain the brand, Lang Son Customs has deployeda prioritized path for agricultural products, and applied measures in quality management, helping release agricultural products quickly.

Means of transport of agricultural products are allowed to enter in a separate path. Photo: Hai Au

Specifically, for fresh lychee products, which are easily damaged, Lang Son Customs has asked Tan Thanh Customs Branch to arrange a separate parking area for trucks carrying lychee for export to wait for customs clearance. Priority is given to fast processing within no more than a minute for the Green channel and no more than three minutes for the Yellow channel.

At Tan Thanh border gate, Deputy Director of Tan Thanh Customs Branch Hoang Thi Thieu Hoa said,for export of fruits with short preservation time, the unit has actively reduced inspection time and procedures at the border gate.

"Currently, the unit has conducted customs clearance an average of 800-900 tons per day, and will try to clear 1,000 tons per day in the main crop," said Hoa

A representative of Global Food Joint Stock Company said the company carries out export procedures from 50 to 100 tons of lychee through Tan Thanh border gate per day. In order for lychee to be cleared quickly, the company always works closely with the authorities, parks trucks at the designated places, fills the customs declaration and provide documents of good origin on the electronic system and use "vaccine passports" to all drivers carrying export goods. Thus, the company’s export shipments are always prioritized to be released quickly.

Take efforts to maintain trade flow

Recently, border-gate customs units in Lang Son province have been actively supporting businesses in quick customs clearance, especially closely coordinating with other authorities in the export of agricultural products. Huu Nghi, Chi Ma and Coc Nam Customs branches always arrange officers on duty at noon, ensuring continuous clearance from 7am to 7pm (until the Chinese border gate closes); and establish aadvisory team to help and answer questions and remove difficulties for enterprises.

Tan Thanh Customs officers inspect vehicles. Photo: Hai Au

Given the activeness in customs clearance of goods, especially fresh fruit products, by the end of June 8, Lang Son Customs completed procedures for 46,747 sets of declarations with an import-export turnover of goods of US$1,843 million, ayear-on-year increase of 84%.

Of which, exports reached 20,914 sets of declarations, worth US$627.5 million, up 50.5% year-on-year and imports reached 25,833 sets of declarations, worth US$1,216 million, up 108.3% year-on-year.

In order to speed up the customs clearance, according to Mr. Nguyen Huu Vuong, Deputy Director of Lang Son Customs Department, the unit has put fresh lychee on the list of priority items, so the time to complete procedures for a cargo truckis only 5-10 minutes.

In addition, Lang Son Customs has directed border-gate customs branches to closely follow the progress of customs clearance, measure the clearance time to take appropriate measures.

The opening of a priority path for fresh fruit products will create favorable conditions for lychee to be exported to China on time, ensuring the export standards and reducing concernsfor farmers and businesses, Vuong said.

The Customs, Border Guard and Police also work together to ensure channeling and trade flow.

In order to create favorable conditions for export of agricultural products, the People's Committee of Lang Son provincediscussed with the competent forces at the border gate in Guangxi province (China), where agricultural products of Vietnam are exported to China.

Accordingly, it is proposed to maintain the validity of the Covid-19 test certificate up to seven days for dedicated drivers, to help shorten the health check time for the drivers and vehicles for fast customs clearance.

Especially, in the main crop of lychee, the working time will be extended to ensure lychee export on time and reduce damage to businesses.