Forum promotes vegetable and fruit trade between Vietnam and China

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) coordinated with the Lang Son Provincial People's Committee to organise a forum in the northern border province of Lang Son on August 11, to discuss the necessary measures to promote vegetable and fruit trade between Vietnam and China.

According to the MARD’s Border and Mountainous Trade Department, farm produce, including fresh fruit, are mostly exported to China via border gates, accounting for more than half of the total. A number of commodities witnessed export growth such as rubber, cassava powder, fisheries, confectionary, coffee and tea.

Speaking at the event, Vice Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee Ly Vinh Quang said that Lang Son holds an important geographical location in the Nanning – Lang Son – Hanoi – Hai Phong economic corridor, and has been a gateway for Vietnamese farm produce to access the Chinese market via Tan Thanh, Coc Nam and Huu Nghi border gates.

In 2016, Lang Son’s border gates permitted the export of almost 478,514 tonnes of dragon fruit; 223,455 tonnes of watermelon; 240,345 tonnes of longan fruit; 81,198 tonnes of lychee; 8,135 tonnes of rambutan; and 17,837 tonnes of dried cashew nuts to China.

Over the past few years, the province has opened additional auxiliary border gates, such as those at Na Hinh, Co Sau and Binh Nghi, expanded roads leading to the border gates, built infrastructure at the border gates, and improved the capacity of goods transit and customs clearance.

According to Vice Mayor of Guangxi’s Chongzuo city, Chongzuo borders Lang Son province and shares similar customs and climate, adding that there remains room for bilateral cooperation in the cultivation and farm produce processing industries.

Each year, Vietnam exports 1,866,000 tonnes of farm produce, worth CNY6.89 billion, to China via Chongzuo’s border gates. Vietnamese fruit such as lychee, mango and dragon fruit are popular in China.

According to the MARD’s Plant Protection Agency, in 2016, Vietnam exported over 2 million tonnes of fruit and vegetables, worth US$1.6 billion, to China. In the past seven months of this year, Vietnam earned over US$1.3 billion from exporting roughly 1.2 million tonnes of fruit and vegetables to the neighbouring country.