Monitoring and handling congestion of fishery products exported to China

The Government Office has issued an official letter to convey the Prime Minister's direction to ministries to monitor the development and handle the congestion of fishery products exported to China.

Pangasius exporters were asked to be calm and not reduce selling prices.

Not reducing the selling price

According to the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), regarding China's application of control, fumigation and traceability regime for all frozen fishery product shipments in major ports, the Government Office has sent an official letter to convey the direction of Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc to the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to monitor the development and processing information on fishery exports to China.

According to VASEP, from November 10 to now, authorities at the Chinese border gate have applied a control, fumigation and traceability regime for all frozen fishery product shipments at major ports, including Shanghai, Wuhan, Tianjin andQingdao. According to new regulations, frozen fishery shipments includingimported pangasius fillets must be tested for Covid-19 on the packaging and products at the port. However, up tothe end of November, the time from sampling to the return of results for customs clearance has not been specified and instructed, causing congestion of pangasius shipments at ports.

Facing this situation, VASEP has sent Official Letter No.127/CV-VASEP to the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development to report Chinese fishery importers have proposed Vietnamese pangasius exporters suspend exports to reduce damage to both sides, especially at the end of the year when the highest demand for imported fishery products and to prevent the infection of the virus SARS-CoV-2. This causes large volumes of cargo to be congested at ports.

At the same time, VASEP has sent an official letter to Vietnamese pangasius exporters to the Chinese market and recommended they calm down andavoid impatiently offering low prices and reducing raw pangasius prices. This will not only to not relieve congestion at ports, but also negatively affect exports to the Chinese market.

VASEP also suggested pangasius exporters work closely with importers to grasp information in a timely fashion to deliver goods to ports to prevent congestion and negotiate to adjust export time reasonably.

Enterprises actively control

Because China-Hong Kong is the leading pangasius market forVietnamese exporters and more than 130 Vietnamese pangasius companies trade with this market, this congestion makes exporters worried about the risk of stagnant exports to the Chinese market andpressure due to increasing costs from inventorying, storing at yard and storing frozen goods while the export price falls.

On November 30, VASEP sent Official Letter No.130/CV-VASEP to the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development on the control of frozen pangasius fillets in Wuhan city. Also on this day, Vietnamese pangasius exporters had a meeting to provide some temporary solutions for pangasius export to the Chinese market.

Accordingly, each exporter will strengthen the implementation of measures to strictly prevent and control Covid-19. In addition, exporters should actively work with the local Centresfor Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to support in implementing the Covid-19 surveillance chain that showing weekly compliance with pandemic prevention and sampling for inspection of the shipment at the appropriate rate. At the same time, the CDC will issue a certificate to the exporter as evidence to send to the importer, increasing the importer's confidence in the exporter’s ability to control Covid-19.

VASEP also quickly asked Vietnamese authorities to work with Chinese authorities to take more appropriate control measures on Vietnamese fishery products as Covid-19 is under control in Vietnam better than other countries.