Farmers harvest lychee in Bac Giang province. Lychee is among the Vietnamese fruits licensed to be exported to China via the official channel. (Photo: VNA) Fourteen agriculturalproducts of Vietnam have been licensed to be exported via the official channelto China, namely bird’s nest and related products, sweet potato, dragon fruit,longan, rambutan, mango, jackfruit, watermelon, banana, mangosteen, blackjelly, lychee, passion fruit, and durian.
Ngo Xuan Nam, Deputy Director of the Vietnam Sanitary and Phytosanitary NotificationAuthority and Enquiry Point (SPS Vietnam), said Vietnamese businesses have paidmore attention to the registration of farm produce and food for export to Chinaover the last two years.
The General Administration of CustomsChina (GACC) has approved 3,013 farm produce and food codes for nearly 3,000Vietnamese businesses permitted to export to this market. The majority ofexports are aquatic and plant-based products.
The companies have made use of theGACC’s registration software, he went on, noting that SPS Vietnam has alsocoordinated closely with the Chinese Embassy in the country to deal with difficultiesand obstacles facing businesses in a timely manner, especially procedural ones.
Theseefforts have substantially helped with the export of many agricultural productsto China, especially fruits, including durian that posted over 2 billion USD inrevenue in 2023, Nam said, adding that China currently accounts for nearly 54%of Vietnam’s total fruit and vegetable exports.
Inlate 2023, the first batch of bird’s nest from Vietnam entered China under aprotocol signed between the Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and RuralDevelopment (MARD) and the GACC.
He considered this as a speciallandmark as the bird’s nest industry now has a chance to tap into the world’ssecond most populous market that consumes over 300 tonnes of this product each year.
The MARD is working with the GACC tocomplete procedures for opening the Chinese market for citrus fruit (pomelo,orange, mandarin), coconut, frozen durian, chilli, medicinal materials, and naturallycaught aquatic products, which are also strong items of Vietnam. Once entering thismarket via the official channel, they will surely generate higher earnings forVietnam’s agriculture, the official opined.
He added that not only fruits,vegetables, or aquatic products but many other agricultural products such ascoffee are also standing a chance to raise their market shares in China.
Beverage consumption in China hastended to shift from tea to coffee in recent years. Though per capita coffee consumptionin this market is still low, sales there have increased. Coffee is likely tobecome a favourite beverage in China in the time ahead, according to theForeign Trade Agency under the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
Therefore, China is considered apotential market for coffee exporting countries, and still has much room to betapped into in the coming years.
Nguyen Nam Hai, Chairman of theVietnam Coffee - Cocoa Association, said China is the 10th largestmarket of Vietnamese coffee, but it mainly imports deeply processed productssuch as instant, roasted, and three-in-one coffee. Therefore, businesses shoulddevelop such products to gain a foothold in the neighbouring market./.
VNA
