Binh Thuan has many organizations and individuals that are granted codes for planting areas and export packing codes for durian. Source: Internet.

Buy online, reduce intermediaries

Vietnam has always maintained its position of China's largest trading partner in ASEAN and the sixth largest globally. China continues to be Vietnam's largest trading partner and second-largest export market, in which fruit products such as dragon fruit account for 90% of exports to foreign countries, lychee accounts for 80% of total exports to foreign countries.

In particular, China is also the largest export market for cassava and cassava products with a proportion of 91.4%.

China is also the third largest seafood import market, after the United States, and Japan.

According to Ngo Tuan Dat, General Director of Southeast Asian fruit segment, Sunwah International Trade Supply Chain Management Company (Guangdong), last year, the business signed a contract with a Vietnamese partner to collect more than 2,000 containers of goods such as durian, jackfruit, passion fruit, mango, purple sweet potato.

This number is almost the annual norm in recent years. However, the company's plan in 2023 will increase the number of units by 500 units to 2,500 containers. With the demand increasing, businesses expect to be able to connect more reputable and potential large partners in Vietnam to cooperate and develop together.

To promote sales into the Chinese market, Ngo Tuan Dat said that, in addition to traditional sales channels such as markets and supermarkets, businesses are promoting e-commerce channels, and online sales channels are thriving in China. "We are currently consuming a large number of goods on the social networking platform Douyin and we are also their strategic partner," he said.

Vuong Chinh Ba, Chairman of Guangxi Business Association also suggested that the Vietnamese side facilitate online purchasing activities, and find ways to further reduce the clearance time. Businesses on both sides also need to discuss and negotiate carefully to facilitate customs clearance.

According to Vuong, the association's agricultural product purchasing network is operating very well, and has a lot of experience in importing goods from Vietnam via road, rail and sea. Vietnamese agricultural products are loved in China, from familiar items such as durian, jackfruit, dragon fruit to coffee. Therefore, in order to promote agricultural trade between Vietnam and China, Vuong expressed his wish that Vietnamese enterprises could contact for cooperation between the two sides. In the near future, the China - ASEAN Annual Fair will be held in Nanning, Guangxi province, which will be an opportunity for businesses of the two sides to meet and have many big contracts signed.

Representatives of Guangxi businesses hope to establish the most direct cooperative relationship with Vietnamese fruit suppliers and reduce circulation links.

Shorten the time to issue planting area code

Currently, China is moving to increase the import of vegetables and fruits from ASEAN. Through the RCEP Agreement, businesses in Southeast Asia, including Vietnam, have many conditions to access the market of 1.4 billion people. However, Dang Phuc Nguyen, General Secretary of the Association of Vegetables and Fruits, said that the biggest difficulty in promoting fruit and vegetable exports to China is that there are still seven of 12 export items that do not have the Protocol. This makes it difficult for some key products such as dragon fruit, mango, and jackfruit to reach their full potential.

Another difficulty is that the time to approve the planting area code and packing code is still long. For example, dragon fruit takes about 6-7 months to be approved, and durian has great potential and value, but the number of grades is small, accounting for about 5% of the total planting area.

Also facing difficulties in planting area codes, Nguyen Van Liem, Deputy Director of Vinh Long Department of Agriculture and Rural Development said, thanks to the signing of the Protocol and favorable trade between Vietnam and China. Therefore, the prices of some fruit products in the province have increased high such as durian, longan, mango, and sweet potato.

However, because the local production area is still small and scattered, the focus is on building codes. The number of growing areas and the number of packing establishments are still facing many difficulties. The number of planting area codes of Vinh Long is still modest.

“In the future, the province's plan is to continue promoting the restructuring of crops, focusing on fruit trees, vegetables and sweet potatoes. At the same time, implement regulations in building codes of growing areas and codes of packing establishments to serve export. Therefore, we suggest that the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development propose the General Administration of Customs of China to simplify the dossier, speed up the appraisal process, shorten the time to issue the code of the growing area and the code of the packing establishment,” proposed Deputy Director of Vinh Long Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

As an enterprise exporting durian to the Chinese market, Bui Thi Hai, Director of Haiyang Trading and Production Co., Ltd (Binh Thuan) said that the company has built a factory to process agricultural products and distribute Cooperate with farmers to build sample durian gardens according to technical requirements to produce products that meet green and clean criteria.

"The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is requested to propose to China to allow the official export of frozen durian products, because the number of fresh durians exported to the Chinese market has not met the output. Especially, when exporting fresh fruit, it will increase production and preservation costs and not ensure food safety and hygiene," suggested Hai.

Tran Phuong Tuan, General Director of Vietnam Bird's Nest Development Joint Stock Company, said that Chinese customers appreciate Vietnamese bird's nest products.

Tran Phuong Tuan proposed the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to support the Vietnam SPS Office to guide the registration of bird's nest exporters on the registration system of the General Department of Customs of China and guide food safety management.