From now until the end of the year, orders of many important export industries such as textiles, wood, aquatic products are quite positive. However, many businesses are worried about production disruption; supply cannot meet demand because of developments of the Covid-19 pandemic in a series of localities across the country.

Exports of wood and wood products in the first half of the year
reached US$8.2 billion. Photo: Nguyen Thanh

Expanded market

Information from the Department of Agricultural Product Processing and Market Development (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development) shows that in the first half of the year, seafood export value earned US$4.05 billion, up 12.5% over the same period in 2020.

Mr. Nguyen Quoc Toan, Director of the Department of Agricultural Product Processing and Market Development, assessed that in the future, the consumption of aquatic products of Vietnam will be positive in the context that the importing countries can control the pandemic and Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) have come into force.

From the perspective of specific products, currently, the world's shrimp import demand has increased again, especially in large markets. The supply of shrimp from some countries such as India and some other suppliers will decrease due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. It is forecasted that Vietnam's shrimp exports in the following months will still achieve good growth results due to many advantages from FTAs.

Meanwhile, Vietnam's pangasius exports are forecasted to grow well in the third quarter of 2021 due to increased demand and stable supply of Vietnamese pangasius.

Similar to seafood, the export of wood and wood products in the first half of this year also recorded many positive results when growing more than 62% over the same period last year, reaching US$8.2 billion. A representative of the Import-Export Department (Ministry of Industry and Trade) said that the wood industry continues to be the industry that has achieved outstanding growth since the beginning of the year when the export value of wood and wood products has improved, especially to the US market.

“From now until the end of the year, wood enterprises are busy because export orders have been signed. The FTAs also contribute to promoting the good growth of the wood industry," said a representative of the Import-Export Department.

Another industry that earns tens of billions of dollars a year is textiles and garments, looking at the export figure of US$19 billion in the first half of this year, an increase of over 20% over the same period in 2020.

In 2019, Mr. Le Tien Truong, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Vietnam National Textile and Garment Group (Vinatex), said that aggregate demand in the world market has recovered positively. The increase in demand makes the transaction volume of textile and garment goods increase, bringing a source of large orders for most businesses after a year of serious shortages.

Commenting that the textile and garment export market will continue to see abundant orders from now to the end of the year, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has forecast that the whole year's export will reach about US$39 billion, equivalent to an increase of about 10% compared to 2020.

Worries over Covid-19

Many key export markets have recovered and the implementation of FTAs has opened up opportunities for Vietnamese goods to accelerate from now until the end of the year as well as the following years. However, the fourth outbreak of the disease from the end of April 2021 until now has made many export enterprises concerned.

With the wood industry, the Import-Export Department said, the export growth momentum will be affected by the complicated pandemic in the domestic market and in the main export markets. This makes the wood industry enterprises face production stagnation, affecting the delivery schedule.

The fisheries sector is also not very positive; the case of Kien Giang province is a typical example. According to Mr. Le Huu Toan, Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Kien Giang province, in the province, there are 30 seafood processing and exporting enterprises with a capacity of 100,000 tons of seafood per year, handling 55% of the province's seafood.

When the Covid-19 pandemic worsened, 19 southern provinces and cities implemented social distancing, only 12 out of 30 seafood enterprises of the province met the production requirements of "3 on the spot"; 18 businesses were forced to suspend operations, 12 businesses still operating also had to cut 50% of staff.

Mr. Do Lap Nghiep, Deputy General Director of Nam Viet Joint Stock Company (An Giang) said, the company is currently applying "3 on-site" production but also faces many difficulties due to high costs. "We recommend early vaccines for workers in processing factories so as not to disrupt the supply chain," Nghiep said.

In the textile industry, Garment 10 Corporation is a familiar name. In recent days, Mr. Than Duc Viet, General Director of Garment 10 Corporation, has been concerned.

“The shortage of containers for import and export as well as transport enterprises is causing a 20% increase in freight rates, while May 10 still has to pay other costs of testing for drivers. These are difficulties of this company. If the company delivers the goods late, they will be fined. That is not to mention the shipments that businesses cannot deliver by water, must go by plane with a cost more,” Mr. Than Duc Viet said.

At present, the difficulty in goods circulation has been gradually eased when on July 29, 2021, the Government Office issued Official Letter No. 5187/VPCP-CN on facilitating the transportation of goods.

In the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, most major export industries are interested in vaccines. Recently, four associations including: Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association, Vietnam Leather-Shoes-Handbag Association, Vietnam Electronic Business Association and Ho Chi Minh City Fine Arts and Woodworking Association have sent official letters to the Prime Minister proposing to speed up the vaccination schedule or support businesses to buy vaccines to inject workers in export industries.

Regarding the priority of vaccination, the Department of Industry (Ministry of Industry and Trade) also said that the Ministry of Health should consider amending regulations and guidelines on priority subjects for vaccination against Covid-19. In which, amending the priority level for employees, employees' relatives who are working in enterprises (including enterprises in industrial parks, export processing zones, etc.) vaccines of the Covid-19 vaccination implementation plan in 2021-2022 to ensure the safety of workers and so that enterprises can soon return to stable production and business activities.