The Ministry of Industry and Trade proposes solutions for difficulties in exporting agricultural products

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Export of agricultural products to China will increasingly meet more stringent requirements. Photo: Nguyen Thanh.

Recommending China to facilitate

The Ministry of Industry and Trade stated that China is Vietnam's largest agricultural and fishery export market, accounting for about 27 percent of the country's total export of this commodity group. However, the export growth rate to the Chinese market has slowed considerably in recent years.

After falling by 5.5 percent in 2018, exports of agricultural and fishery products in the first 8 months of this year to the Chinese market decreased by 8.4 percent compared to the same period last year. The typical exports declining are vegetables and fruits falling by more than 13 percent; rice dropping more than 67 percent; coffee dropping by over 13 percent and cassava falling by 3.5 percent.

The aforementioned decline is attributed to the decline in China's domestic demand due to the country's poor economic situation in the first months of the year.

In addition, the impact of the new policies and the implementation of policies from 2018 by Chinese authorities on imported agricultural and fishery products such as restructuring of management apparatus, increasing testing, quarantine and safety of imported food. The border trade policy is also being tightened.

"Although the quality of Vietnam's agricultural and aquatic products has improved, the technical barriers on quarantine and food safety standards have been issued by other countries and China causing many challenges and difficulties for Vietnamese products. In order to develop sustainable exports, it is necessary to reorganize production to ensure a source of high-quality and high-value added goods, especially post-harvest preservation, traceability, food hygiene and safety control, and quarantine," the Ministry of Industry and Trade said.

According to Mr. Tran Thanh Hai, Deputy Director of the Import-Export Department (Ministry of Industry and Trade), it is necessary to plan and reorient production to create a smooth value chain. Departments and localities should fully guide the new regulations and standards of the Chinese market; at the same time, promote negotiations, expand markets and orient official exports.

In the future, in order to solve difficulties in exporting goods to China, the Ministry of Industry and Trade confirmed that it will continue to assume the prime responsibility and coordinate with concerned ministries and branches to focus on implementing a number of tasks.

Specifically, bringing problems in bilateral trade relations and in agriculture and fisheries in particular to discuss and advocate for China to continue creating favorable conditions or taking time for transition for new policies, removing barriers for Vietnam's export agricultural and fishery products at bilateral cooperation mechanisms from high-level, ministerial-level, branch and functional agencies (the General Department of Customs, Ministry of Trade and National Reform Development Committee) and China at the local level.

In addition, the Ministry of Industry and Trade will discuss with the authorities (the General Department of Customs) as well as the local authorities of China (especially Guangxi and Yunnan) to open more designated border gates for importing fruits, aquatic products and food in border areas, increase the time for customs clearance on peak occasions.

Series of recommendations

In addition to its work, the Ministry of Industry and Trade proposes the Prime Minister to assign relevant ministries, branches and localities to continue implementing a number of solutions to exploit opportunities and overcome difficulties.

Specifically, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development will review and select priority agricultural and aquatic products to speed up the progress of market opening negotiations with the Chinese side in a specific order on the basis of the Chinese market having demand and Vietnam has production capacity to meet the scale in both quantity and quality, thereby urging the opening of the market.

Effective implementation of cooperation documents in the field of quarantine signed between the two sides, establishing a regular exchange mechanism so that Vietnam captures China’s changes; focus on negotiating and solving difficulties for enterprises exporting agricultural and aquatic products.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs proposed to negotiate and agree with China on the plan to upgrade pairs of sub-border gates, trails and open paths eligible to national and international border gates to facilitate operations of import, export and trading agricultural and aquatic products as well as management and prevention of negative aspects of this activity.

For enterprises producing and exporting agricultural and aquatic products to the Chinese market, the Ministry of Industry and Trade proposes to actively grasp information, tastes and market demands, and regulations on China's quality standards, at the same time, recommendations of state management agencies; fundamentally change the thinking of market access, transaction methods, production organization and export of agricultural and aquatic products to China.

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In addition, businesses need to build long-term business plans and strategies with Chinese businesses; attaching importance to building a distribution network suitable to the market; enhance the development of brands, models and packaging, while improving the professional level of trade, language understanding in order to meet the requirements of market tastes.