Tons of goods waiting for export, don’t take more goods to border gates

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Dragon fruits are seriously affected when trade between Vietnam and China due to coronavirus. Photo: Internet.

Speaking at the Conference on Trade Promotion and agricultural product development under the impact of the coronavirus epidemic held by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development on February 3, vice chairman of Lang Son provincial people’s committee Nguyen Cong Truong said that from January 25, 2020, due to the outbreak of acute respiratory syndrome associated with the novel coronavirus, China has closed nine pairs of border markets with Vietnam from January 31 to February 8.

If the outbreakcontinues, border markets will remain closed,making it difficultforexports of agricultural products to China. At present, there are still 333 trucks carrying agricultural products waiting for clearance, including 190 trucks of dragon fruits weighing over 5,300 tons.

“It is worth mentioning that, dragon fruit products are still transported to border gates. The dragon fruit price before Lunar New Year was VND 35,000 per kg, now only VND 3,000 - 4,000 per kg, watermelon is VND 1,000 per kg. We recommend businesses and associations to limit taking goods to Lang Son at this time and look for other solutions to sell domestically, because goods are still also waiting at borders, which increasescosts,” said Truong.

As a locality with a large planting area of ​​dragon fruits and high expectation on exports to China, Vice Chairman of Long An People's Committee Pham Van Canh said: “Currently, ​​Long An’s planting area of dragon fruits in harvest is about 9,587ha (out of an planting area of 11,826ha) with an output of 320,000 tons.”

From January to the end of February 2020, about 20,000 tons are in stock and at the end of February 2020, another 28,000 tons will be harvested.

Regarding processing and purchasing establishments, Long An province has 154 establishments and 100 establishments that have cold stores of an average of 50 tons per store, equivalent to a capacity of 7,000-8,000 tons. The whole province has 15 establishments directly selling dragon fruits to China, the rest process dragon fruits for Chinese warehouses.

Dragon fruits of Long An are mainly sold to Chinese traders, accounting for 75 percent. The exportsto Thailand, South Korea, Singapore and Japan only account for 25 percent.

“SinceJanuary, there are two companies with big purchasing power: Hong Thai Duong Company bought 30-40 percent of the output and deposited 300 containers with the purchase price of VND 40,000-50,000 per kg. However, up to now, this company has stopped buying, promising to support farmers at 4,000 VND per kg. The second company isPhu Quy Company, it canceled 200 containers but gave the purchase price of VND 5,000 / kg,” said Canh.

Facing difficult consumption, Long An province visited China to review and promote dragon fruits exports, but it was quite difficult.

The province proposed the Agro Processing and Market Development Authority (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development) and the Ministry of Industry and Trade to support the exports of dragon fruits at the border gates, promptly negotiate and remove difficulties for dragon fruits; and support the consumption of dragon fruits at trade centers, supermarkets and major wholesale markets in the home country.

In addition, Long An province also proposed MARD to support the cold storesto store and preserve dragon fruits, and expand markets to consume this item.

On removing difficulties for agricultural products exports to China, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Quoc Khanh said that the Ministry of Industry and Trade has directed overseas deals to look for and contactnew customers to contribute to diverting exports to some new markets.

In addition, the Ministry of Industry and Trade also asked a number of logisticsenterprises to support the preservation of agricultural products during market research. Trade affiliates in Guangdong, Guangxi and Yunnan have been actively exchanging with border provinces to speed up the opening of border markets.

Particularly for fruit products, Deputy Minister Tran Quoc Khanh said fruit products are subjected to some seasonal and preservation pressures, so it is difficult to improve the situation in a short time. In addition, agricultural products in general and fruits in particular are difficult to redirect the market because they have not met some standards of traceability, packaging and labels.

Facing this situation, the Ministry of Industry and Trade continued to request traders to negotiate with customers andmonitor the export progress until the border gates officially reopen to promptly deal with issues.

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“In addition, we suggest that farmers change the production schedule because the epidemic is still very unpredictable and likely to last longer. Besides, it is necessary to organize the supply chain connection with some large fruit granaries such as BinhThuan, Long An and etc.," saidDeputy Minister Tran Quoc Khanh.