Flexible measures to facilitate fresh fruit exports

Therefore, the number of vehicles transporting goods to the border gate area for export procedures increased sharply. To ensure the quality of exported agricultural products and fresh fruits, agencies, departments, branches and functional forces at the border gate have flexibly deployed measures to support and create the most favorable conditions for enterprises and traders to carry out export procedures.

Create a separate channel

According to the report of the Management Board of the Dong Dang - Lang Son border gate economic zone, at this time, on average, there are about 350-400 vehicles each day transporting agricultural products and fresh fruits of all kinds to the border gate areas, mainly to Huu Nghi international border gate and Tan Thanh border gate. In order to ensure that all means of transporting agricultural products and fresh fruits can be cleared during the day, the functional forces at the border gate have been implementing synchronous measures.

The number of means of transport of agricultural products and fresh fruits for export moving to border gate areas in Lang province during this time accounted for 80% of the total number of export items, especially dragon fruit, lychee, durian, etc.

Means of transporting fresh lychees are arranged with priority in separate lanes at Tan Thanh border gate. Photo: H.Nu

In addition to durian, currently, all fresh fruits of Vietnam are allowed to be officially exported to the Chinese market, such as lychee, longan, watermelon, dragon fruit, rambutan, banana, jackfruit, mango, mangosteen, etc. Passion fruit is also organized by the Customs at the border gates to move separately according to the category of Green channel, thereby helping to shorten the time of customs procedures and customs clearance of goods, avoiding damage, and quality reduction for export goods.

In addition, the authorities and functional forces at the border gate are implementing the "3 - 1" option (complete customs clearance procedures for 3 means of transporting agricultural products and fresh fruits for export then complete procedures for 1 vehicle to transport other items).

At the same time, under the direction of the leader of the People's Committee of Lang Son province, the departments, branches and forces at Huu Nghi international border gate and Tan Thanh border gate have increased officials and civil servants, arranged to work through lunch and pull working time to 22 - 23 hours, thereby, helping to improve customs clearance efficiency, especially helping to increase the number of vehicles transporting agricultural products and fresh fruits that can be cleared within the same day.

In order to reduce pressure on Huu Nghi international border gate, the Management Board of Dong Dang - Lang Son border gate economic zone and related departments, agencies and sectors of Lang Son province quickly discussed directly with functional forces of Guangxi (China), agreed to allow durian products to be exported through Tan Thanh border gate. This not only helps to quickly solve the traffic jam at the Huu Nghi international border gate area, but also helps to increase the number of durian trucks passing through both border gates during the day (at one time, over 200 trucks were cleared per day).

According to statistics, from May 23 to the end of June 18, 2023, there were 412 shipments of fresh durian fruits exported through Huu Nghi international border gate and Tan Thanh border gate with an estimated total export volume of more than 30,000 ton. Especially, although according to regulations, durian products are required to carry out export procedures through Huu Nghi international border gate, but from May 25, 2023, with the flexibility of all levels, branches of the province, durian products have been exported by both Vietnam and China through Tan Thanh border gate (on average, 55-65 trucks are exported/day).

Talking to the Customs News, a representative of Tan Thanh Customs Branch said that in the past month (from May 16 to June 16), following the direction of the General Department of Customs and the Lang Son Customs Department, in order to promote fresh lychee products for export through the area, the unit has included this item in the list of priority goods for the Green channel, (only checking the declaration documents after customs clearance), therefore, the time to process customs clearance for one shipment only takes about a minute.

Along with the efforts of the Customs authorities, the Border Guard forces at the border gates also actively arranged the number of vehicles to flow in and out at the border gate areas, especially in coordination with the yard enterprises to arrange Separate parking area and separate exit channel to ensure fast clearance and no congestion at the border gate.

Build a quick control plan

According to the Plant Quarantine Sub-Department of Region 7, Lang Son, it is forecast that from mid-June to the end of July is the peak time for provinces and cities nationwide to harvest key fresh fruits for export. Currently, 8/11 kinds of fruits have been and are in the harvest season, such as durian, lychee, dragon fruit, jackfruit, banana, watermelon, longan, etc. To ensure the clearance time of goods, quarantine stations at the border gate also developed a plan to both ensure the quality control of exported fresh fruit, and ensure quick and concise procedures, shorten the inspection time to promote fresh fruit shipments for export.

Specifically, the stations have planned to carry out a 30% probability check/consignment/company (for example, if a company has 10 trucks of fresh fruit for export, it only checks the probability of 3 cars), this contributes to reduce the time for enterprises carrying out related procedures.

It is known that not only reduce the inspection rate on the Vietnamese side, to ensure favorable conditions for enterprises to export agricultural products and fresh fruits of Vietnam, with the agreement from the functional forces of Vietnam, but China has also agreed to reduce the quarantine rate to 10% for each shipment of durian and passion fruit. This helps to reduce the time for completing procedures, promoting customs clearance back and forth between the two border gates.

Mr. Nguyen Huu Vuong, Deputy Director of Lang Son Customs Department, said that currently, the customs branches at the border gate had directed professional teams to carry out a physical inspection only when detecting consignments showing signs of violation, thereby helping to reduce procedures and shorten the time for customs clearance of agricultural products and fresh fruits. Accordingly, Lang Son Customs Department asked five border-gate customs branches to focus all their efforts and apply reasonable solutions to timely support enterprises to carry out export procedures for agricultural products, fresh fruits and vegetables. In particular, priority is given to pre-clearance procedures for vehicles transporting Vietnamese agricultural products and fresh fruits to China.

Typically, Huu Nghi Border Gate Customs Branch has directed the professional stages to carry out an inspection only through the electronic declaration system and only need a certificate from the plant quarantine agency to carry out the permitting customs clearance. The time to clear a shipment through Huu Nghi international border gate at this time is only about 2 minutes.

With the flexible implementation of measures at this time, the departments, agencies, and functional forces of Lang Son province are implementing with the goal of helping customs clearance for agricultural products and fresh fruits for export faster, thereby supporting enterprises to export agricultural products through the area in the most convenient way.