On November 29, authorities in the northern province of Lang Son sent letters to farmers and export companies in some provinces with information that China has tightened its import regulations for Covid-19 prevention and thousands of trucks carrying agriculture products have been stuck at some local border gates. Lang Son authorities advised farmers and firms in these localities to carefully study the latest moves by China to regulate their production and exporting activities.
Thousands of trucks carrying agriculture products have been stuck at some local border gates in Lang Son Province
General Secretary of the Vietnam Fruit and Vegetable Association Dang Phuc Nguyen said that they had been informed that China would halt import activities for at least six weeks around the Lunar New Year Festival.
Jackfruit are one of the key farm products in the Mekong Delta region. The fruits are mainly exported to China and now face high inventory during the coming harvest season.
A local farmer, Tran Van Be said that jackfruit prices had been slashed to VND 1,000-5,000 per kilo while they can only recover investment at the price of VND 10,000 per kilo.
"Our products are being stuck at the Lang Son Border Gate for many days," the farmer said. "We'll incur big losses if China continues to tighten import regulations or suspend import during our harvest season around the Lunar New Year."
Tien Giang Province is a large fruit basket in the region with 80,000 hectares planting 11 kinds of fruits. Local farmers are also seeing prices falling by half due to the change in the Chinese market.
According to Le Thanh Tung, deputy head of the Department of Plant Cultivation, under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the southern provinces are harvesting over 700,000 tonnes of fruits this December including 200,000 tonnes of dragon fruits. And it is expected that the fruit output in the first quarter of 2022 will be some 1.7 million tonnes.
"Vietnam may still face lots of challenges in exporting agricultural products in the first quarter of 2022 if the Covid-19 epidemic continues," Tung said. Our key export market of China is tightening the checking the point of origin of imported products, which has caused serious congestion at the border gates. Localities should be well-prepared for the sales activities."
The official suggested that farmers and firms should try to sell their products in the domestic market during this time and look for opportunities to export their products to other countries including the US and Japan.
