Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Local authorities and businesses are making efforts to promote domesticconsumption of agricultural products, which are piling up due to the impact ofnovel coronavirus outbreaks in China.

Exportturnover is forecast to decrease in the first quarter of this year due to theepidemic and subsequent impact on trade.

Accordingto Nguyen Bich Lam, General Director of the General Statistics Office (GSO),exports are estimated to fall 21 percent to 46.5 billion USD in the firstquarter. Items including agricultural products, seafood, wood products andgarment and textile products are likely to be the worst hit.

Exportsto China are predicted to reach 5.6 billion USD, declining by 25 percentyear-on-year, with agricultural and wood products affected.

Insiderssaid that the agricultural sector is estimated to be most damaged by theepidemic from China, including dragon fruit, watermelon, seafood, wood andrice. However, it’s also an opportunity to change production and businessmethods to adapt to new challenges and difficulties, including those caused bythe spreading of new strain of coronavirus (nCoV-2019).

Ministerof Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuong said it’s necessary todevelop both short- and long-term scenarios.

“Inorder to take advantage of opportunities, it’s necessary to developlarge-scale production and co-operation chains to find other directionsfor agricultural outputs,” Cuong said.

Cuongadded: "If there was no coronavirus, there would be other problems.Therefore, we need to be alert, not afraid of the disease. This situation poseschallenges for us, requiring strong solutions to cope with it.”

NguyenTon Quyen, former vice president and general secretary of the VietnamAssociation of Wood and Forest Products, said shipments of woodchips to Chinahave dropped due to the virus. “However, I see that it’s a chance for localbusinesses to develop production of artificial boards and medium-densityfiberboard made of woodchips.”

“Inthe last two weeks, four Vietnamese woodchip manufacturers have bought machinesto produce artificial boards,” Quyen said.

Quyenalso proposed the State to consider supporting such businesses with interestrates and helping them complete production lines to take advantage of theopportunity.

DeputyChairman of the Vietnam Fruit and Vegetables Association Dinh Cao Khue said asthe epidemic broke, the operation of businesses exporting goods to Chinastopped completely.

“Somebusinesses lost deposits of 100-200 million USD because they could not sell goods,while others bought goods from farmers and kept them in stock because theywanted to keep their prestige,” Khue said.

Khue said the association is promoting exports to other countries. However, thegovernments of some countries have warned citizens to avoid crowds, meaningfewer people were going to the market and shopping.

Khue said coconuts could be preserved for 75 days, while red dragon fruits and whitedragon fruits can keep for 15 days and 45 days, respectively.

“Withsuch times, I expected the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to supply updated information about the customsclearance of goods in the border area between Vietnam and China,” Khue said.

“Wealso need prediction on the purchasing power of the Chinese when trade isre-opened,” he added.

Asfor seafood, Deputy General Secretary of the Vietnam Association of SeafoodExporters and Producers Nguyen Hoai Nam said the industry has not seen anycancellation of orders due to coronavirus, but there were several delays ororder adjustments.

“Ourdifficulty now is that some cruises have temporarily stopped receivingcontainers of goods to China,” Nam said.

“Enterprisesexporting to China are currently stockpiling, suffering high costs forwarehouses. In China, there are many firms directly selling Vietnamese seafoodto restaurants, however when the restaurant system stops buying or reducesthe volume of seafood purchases, these firms are forced to stop importingseafood from Vietnam because they do not want to pay the cost of storinggoods,” Nam said.

“Isee a number of opportunities here. Firstly, the demand for frozen and cannedproducts will increase because many people do not want to eat fresh productsduring the outbreak. Secondly, China is one the biggest five sellers of tuna inthe world. Many countries will cut or reduce the import of Chinese tuna, soit’s time for Vietnamese firms to expand the export of tuna, increasing marketshare,” he added.

Interms of the rice industry, Bui Thi Thanh Tam, General Director of the NorthernFood Corporation, said five or six years ago the Chinese market was Vietnam’sbiggest but it’s now different. Vietnam has expanded to many different markets,so the import value of China is no longer dominant in Vietnam’s rice industry.

“Thecoronavirus epidemic does not impact our rice industry much,” Tam said.

DeputyGeneral Director of Central Group Nguyen Thi Phuong said the group is focusingon buying agricultural products from farmers in provinces of Binh Thuan, GiaLai, Khanh Hoa, Long An and Tien Giang.

“Thissupporting programme has been carried out at all 37 Big C supermarkets and GO!nationwide, lasting until the situation is controlled. We expect to consumeabout 80 tonnes of dragon fruit and watermelon per day, helping farmersstabilise their production while customers can enjoy fresh fruits,” Phuong said.

AtBig C and GO! supermarkets in the northern region, watermelon is sold at 6,200 VND per kilo while dragon fruit at 15,500 VND per kilo. In the southernregion, the fruits are priced at 4,900 VND and 10,900 VND per kilo, respectively.These prices are two to three times lower than those on normal days.

“Thedemand for agricultural products is very high in our supermarket chain. At thistime, we are committed to providing as maximum support as we can.”

“Weproposed the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development inform us of agricultural products which are in stock, to set upproper marketing programmes,” Phuong said./.