Building clean food brands, boosting domestic consumption, diversifying export markets, avoiding dependence on a market …
These are solutions given by economic experts before the problem of dependence on the Chinese consumer market of Vietnamese agricultural products for many years.
Why can't ‘escape Trung’?
According to a report by the Ministry of Industry and Trade, China is Vietnam's largest market for agricultural and aquatic products, accounting for an average of 27% of the total export turnover of agricultural and fishery products to the world. In particular, there are many items with large turnover such as vegetables, cashews, coffee, rice, cassava and products from cassava, rubber and aquatic products.
Hundreds of fruit containers, mainly dragon fruits, have not yet been cleared, exported to China due to changing border policies to cope with corona epidemic. (Photo: T.Đ)
Statistics of the General Department of Customs show that in 11 months of 2019, agricultural and fishery exports to China reached US $ 6.31 billion. In which rubber export reached 1.34 billion USD, seafood 1.1 billion USD, cashew 520 million USD, tea 22.7 million USD, rice 225 million USD, vegetables and fruits 2.24 billion USD, coffee 89 , 5 million USD and cassava, products from cassava is 736 million USD.
Assoc.Prof. Dr. Ngo Tri Long, former Director of the Price Market Research Institute (Ministry of Finance), said that exporting agricultural products to the Chinese market has the advantage of having a long border and not too strict quality standards. , consumer tastes have many similarities with Vietnam. However, the export of this product depends too much on the Chinese market, which makes the industry face many risks.
“Many items were forced to price, policies changed, a series of fruits were dropped … causing serious damage to farmers is a chorus that we have witnessed for many years”, Mr. Long said.
According to the former Director of the Price Market Research Institute, the lessons of the blood from the Vietnamese agricultural products are too dependent on China, but solving this problem is not easy.
The reason is that China is currently the 2nd largest economy in the world with a population of 1.4 billion, of which the number of middle-class people is growing fast. Demand for agricultural and aquatic products is huge. Secondly, the Chinese market is still considered easy-going, suitable to the way of production of Vietnamese farmers.
“There is a part of responsibility of the state management agency. Many important policies have been set but not implemented and monitored. Farmers in many places are still tinkering about what to cultivate, what to feed or to do according to the “spontaneous movement”, so when it happens, they fall into empty hands again “, Assoc.Prof. Dr. Ngo Tri Long said.
“In danger”
Dr. Vo Tri Thanh, Director of the Institute of Strategic and Competitive Research, said that the coronary pneumonia epidemic would affect many aspects and areas of social life. “Where the impact depends on the course of the epidemic. But tourism, securities, transportation, aviation, logic, retail distribution, restaurants, commerce, supply chains … will face difficulties, “Thanh said.
Dr. Vo Tri Thanh, Director of the Institute for Brand and Competition Strategy. (Photo: H.H)
According to experts, Vietnam is having many-sided economic relations with China. In the context of increasingly widespread disease and complicated developments, import and export trade between the two countries is certainly affected. The most obvious is the congestion of agricultural products in recent days at the border with China.
However, Dr. Thanh also added: “The reality is difficult, but not entirely negative. Enterprises producing and trading with inherent dynamism will find other markets for export ”.
“Last year China upgraded the standards of imported goods, initially causing difficulties for Vietnamese agricultural products. But thanks to that, I was more methodical, more responsive, difficult in the first phase but gradually improved. From there, we met the standards of fastidious markets and helped expand the market ”, The Director of the Brand Strategy and Competition Research Institute added.
Besides the macro solution, Dr. Vo Tri Thanh overall said that the Government also needs other temporary solutions to support export enterprises. “Enterprises exporting to China are facing difficulties, inventory is high, costs are high … Therefore the Government can consider supporting enterprises with information or direct support ”Mr. Thanh said.
Dr. Le Dang Doanh, former head of the Central Institute for Economic Management, said that the coronary pneumonia epidemic was an “accident”, posing many challenges to Vietnam's exports of agricultural products. “China is Vietnam's largest agricultural export market, this accident continues to raise warnings about the issue of agricultural exports through this country, both quota and official.” Mr. Doanh said.
According to Doanh, Vietnam has about 70% of the labor force living in rural areas and the income depends heavily on agricultural products. Therefore, any small fluctuations in trade into the Chinese market will immediately have a direct impact on their lives.
In order to reduce risks and find sustainable directions for Vietnam's agricultural exports, Assoc.Prof.Dr. Ngo Tri Long said that it is necessary to modernize agriculture, build clean food brands, diversify markets. to avoid export dependence on a current market.
“The expansion of export markets is essential in the current context. We need to join the international value chain, expand links and expand markets to economies other than China. ” Assoc.Prof. Dr. Ngo Tri Long said.
The former Director of the Price Market Research Institute also emphasized that cooperatives and farmers should focus on developing clean agricultural products and properly paying attention to the domestic market of 100 million people.
Mr. Nguyen Dinh Tung, representative of Vietnam Fruit and Vegetable Association, said that in the current context, it is necessary to boost domestic consumption by applying measures such as online sales, home delivery. In addition, the government has a policy to support the processing industry, preservation, even exemption and reduction of electricity costs to reduce cold storage costs …
“The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Ministry of Industry and Trade continue to support and promote the export of agricultural products to other markets, plan planting areas, do well the preservation work, and the Ministry of Industry and Trade will provide electricity support. for the units involved in preserving fruit to overcome difficulties “, Representative of Vietnam Vegetable Association proposed.
Deputy Minister Tran Quoc Khanh said that the Ministry of Industry and Trade has actively shifted exports to other markets … However, Mr. Khanh also said that farmers need to adjust production immediately because the disease may last.
“Many countries also provide interest support for retail, manufacturing, and tourism businesses, so it is recommended that the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development sum up their needs to take measures to support farmers. The Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Finance joined in reviewing the reduction of taxes and fees for goods in circulation in the current period … “, suggested Mr. Khanh.
Besides, Mr. Khanh said that enterprises should increase domestic consumption, calling for people to join hands to support domestic agricultural products …
Hoang Hung
Source: VTC
