The south central coastal province of Khanh Hoa hosted an event connecting local firms and Chinese enterprises on December 11.

There remained big challenges in Vietnam's exports to China, as the market has been and will continue to impose higher requirements on both export and import standards, said Tran Quang Huy, Director of the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Asia-Africa Market Department.

Vietnam and China has signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in agriculture and fruit sale, expected to facilitate farm produce trading amid difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

If Vietnam and China can further optimise their neighbourliness as well as the huge trade potential under the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), bilateral trade will reach a new height, an official said at an online business matching event on December 17.

Twenty-one exporters of Vietnam and nearly 20 importers from China’s Shanghai city gathered at an online business matching event on September 24 to seek to promote bilateral fruit trading which is believed to hold much room to grow.

Ministries, sectors and localities have made concerted efforts to recover sales and exports of Vietnamese agricultural products which have been severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The fisheries sector of Vietnam is facing an array of difficulties as the acute respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has led to contracted exports.

A ceremony was held in Hanoi on October 22 to announce the export of Vietnam’s first batch of dairy products to China under a protocol signed between the Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the General Administration of Customs of China on April 26, 2019.

Vietnam exported 42,199 tonnes of cashew nuts worth 327 million USD to China in the first eight months of 2019, up 60.8 percent in volume and 35.4 percent in value year-on-year, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung has asked the Chinese province of Guangdong to import more Vietnamese products, especially farm produce such as rice, fruit and milk.

Many of Vietnam’s agricultural products, especially rice, vegetables and cassava, have faced barriers preventing their export to China, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD).

Vietnamese businesses have been urged to change their production and export methods to boost shipments to China – a big but increasingly demanding market for agricultural imports.

Unofficial exports over the border to China will face technical barriers since the two nations have agreed to limit them and increase official exports, heard a recent seminar in Ho Chi Minh City.

Vietnam’s agricultural and aquatic exports to China are likely to face higher quality requirements and stronger competition from other ASEAN exporters although China’s demand for these goods is still on the rise, heard a meeting on August 18.