Containers line up to ship products to China via Tan Thanh Border Gate, Lang Son Province. Many firms are seeking to boost exports to China via official channels. (Source: VNA)
Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Many Vietnamese firms want to boost exports ofagricultural products to China via official channels to gain higher value andavoid risks from unofficial cross-border trade, but face a number ofdifficulties in seeking to bring their trade above-board.
In recent years, an estimated 60 percent of Vietnam’s fruit and vegetableexports to China were conducted via informal cross-border trade - transactionsacross the boundaries that were not recoded by customs authorities and wereconducted by small and unregistered traders.
According to Do Ngoc Chat, Director of the Viet A Company, only a fewagricultural products of Vietnam are accepted to be exported to China viaofficial channels.
For example, only eight types of fruits—dragon fruit, watermelon, lychee,longan, banana, mango, jackfruit and rambutan—were allowed to be exported viaofficial channels to China.
According to Le Thanh Hoa from the Agro Processing and Market DevelopmentAuthority, many agricultural products of Vietnam could not be exported to Chinavia official channels because the two governments had not finished negotiationson procedures and quarantine checks.
Chat said that many farm produce of Vietnamese strength such as coconut,avocado, durian and sweet potatoes could not be exported via official channelsand must be exported in small volumes.
Chat said that Vietnam’s exports to a huge market like China via officialchannels remained modest.
“We don’t want to conduct unofficial cross-border trade for many types offruits and vegetables. We want to promote exports to China via officialchannels to gain higher value and security in payment,” he said.
According to Nguyen Dinh Tung, Director of the Vina T&T Group, informalcross-border trade was disadvantageous for both traders and farmers.
For example, green-skin polemo were exported to China at low prices becausethey were not accepted through official channels, Tung said.
Transportation costs in informal cross-border trade are higher and the risk ofnot receiving payment is also higher, he said.
Tung added that if Chinese traders suddenly stop or tighten informal crossborder-trade on any product, the product’s prices might fall to rock bottom.
In addition, firms and farmers do not pay attention to enhancing productquality, building their brands and verifying product origin in informalcross-border trade, according to Chat.
Chat urged the management agencies to speed up the negotiation with China onexports of fruits and vegetables via official channels.
He said that many types of Vietnamese fruits were now exported to demandingmarkets like the US, Australia and Japan but were still going throughunofficial cross-border trade to China.
Le Thanh Hoa from the Agro Processing and Market Development Authority saidthat several Vietnamese fruits and vegetables would soon be accepted for exportto China via official channels, such as green-skin polemo and sweet potato.
Vietnam was also focusing on removing barriers in the quarantine check processto expand markets for Vietnamese fruits and vegetables, he added.
Deputy Director of the Vietnam Gardening Association Vo Mai said that Vietnammust enhance product quality and ensure food hygiene and safety to boostexports to China, adding that Vietnam should gradually reduce informalcross-border trade to China and shift to official exports.
Statistics of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development showed that inthe first nine months of this year, Vietnam’s exports of agro-forestry-fisheryproducts reached 29.6 billion USD, in which China was the largest market ✃with avalue of 6 billion USD. Fruit and vegetable exports to China totalled 2 billionUSD in the nine-month period, including official and unofficial trade.-VNS/VNA
