Agriculture, fishery to China: Need to accept requirements

The Chinese market is becoming increasingly picky, tightening requirements and conditions on imported agricultural and fishery products. In order to remove difficulties and create momentum for Vietnamese agricultural and aquatic products to penetrate this market, there is no other way than to change the production mindset, and fully meet the stringent requirements.

Meeting the requirements, Vietnamese agricultural products still have many opportunities to boost exports to the Chinese market. Photo: Nguyen Thanh

Change mindset on ‘easy-going’ market

Mr. Tran Thanh Hai, Deputy Director of Import and Export under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, said in the field of exports of agriculture and fishery products from 2016 to 2018, the average annual growth reached 12.5 percent. However, in the first 8 months of this year, Vietnam's agricultural and fishery exports to China recorded a decrease of 7.2% compared to the same period last year.

One of the usualcases demonstrating the difficulties in exporting to China is seafood export in Quang Ninh. According to Mr. Bui Van Khong, Vice Chairman of Quang Ninh Province People's Committee.there was aperiod when local agricultural, forestry and fishery products could not be exported to this market because they did not meet the import requirements. Although Quang Ninh province has announced the application of quality management standards and origin of imported agricultural products into China, businessesand households are still subject and have not implemented such procedures.

He said that in order to remove difficulties for agricultural and aquatic products for export to China, both farmers, businesses and management agencies need to transform themselves in order to catch up with the market and improve the competitiveness of products; issuing solutions to planning farming areas, investing in processing technology, and preservation of technology.

Quang Ninh province requests the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to lead and coordinate with other provinces and cities across the country to propagate and guide enterprises, production facilities and farming households to apply the standard processes of farming, agricultural and aquatic production; guiding product quality control and traceability for businesses to fully meet the conditions and requirements of importing countries.

In exporting goods to China, Ms. Le Hoang Oanh, Director of the Asia-Africa Market Department (Ministry of Industry and Trade) said: "It is time to really change the perception of China as an‘easy-going’ market as well as considering China as a border market, Vietnam needs to organise production according to the planning and seasonal demands; building a distribution channel in China; promoting the export of official turnover instead of this small market.”

Clearly locate the requirements and size of each commodity group

In fact, the recent export of agriculture and fishery products to China is not only a gray area but also contains bright spots. The case of exporting Bac Giang lychee to China is one example.

Mr. Duong Van Thai, Vice Chairman of Bac Giang People's Committee, said in 2019, BacGiang lychee had a successful crop.The province's output reached 147,000 tonnes. Litchi is exported about 54% (Chinese market accounts for 99.1% of export output). The average export price reached VND50,000/kg.

To achieve this result, Bac Giang province has actively implemented trade promotion inmany forms in key markets, especially the Chinese market. Bac Giang identified China as an important market. From this statement, the locality built a strategy to develop lychee in a synchronised manner from production planning to application of science and technology, branding and export conditions to increase the value of lychee fruit.

In order to promote the export of agriculture and fishery products to China in the future, Minister Tran Tuan Anh recommends that local leaders need to closely coordinate with ministries and branches, especially the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Ministry of Industry and Trade, to determine requirements, scale and specific characteristics for the commodity groups of the Chinese market with a view to having clear and complete planning on the basis of mobilised production capacity and scale.

"We will soon agree with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to direct the construction of technical barriers, technical standards, and goods quality for agricultural and fishery products to further improve the quality of agricultural and aquatic products. Fromthen, Vietnamese agriculture and fisheries have had not only good access to the Chinese market but also other import markets in the world.Only when there is a large commodity production, organic production, and modern production, competitivenesswill be ensuredfor farmers and businesses,"Minister Tran Tuan Anh said.