Discussing ways to overcome difficulties and promote agricultural exports to China

On the morning of August 6, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Lao Cai province coordinated with SUTECH Science and Technology Consulting Co., Ltd. to organize a workshop to guide businesses exporting food of plant origin to China.

Despite potential, there are difficulties in exporting to China.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the conference, Mr. Nguyen Quang Vinh - Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Lao Cai province said that Lao Cai province has nearly 200km of border with 3 pairs of border gates, therefore, Lao Cai's import and export activities are extremely important. Notably, Lao Cai is also an important gateway in connecting goods from many other localities to the Chinese market.

Workshop to guide businesses exporting plant-based foods to China

In the first half of 2024, Lao Cai province's import-export turnover reached 1.1 billion USD, of which export turnover reached nearly 600 million USD with many agricultural and food products playing a leading role.

“Up to this point, local commodities such as cinnamon and cinnamon products are basically exported. Of which, the Chinese market accounts for nearly 100% of Lao Cai’s cinnamon essential oil, in addition to products such as medicinal herbs, cardamom, amomum, tea, and bananas,” said Mr. Nguyen Quang Vinh.

Currently, the Chinese market requires improved quality, growing area codes, and harvesting care processes that must ensure food safety. This is a difficult point for businesses, cooperatives, and farming households in exporting to this market. This is the reason why Vietnamese agricultural products in general and Lao Cai in particular, despite their potential, face difficulties when exporting to this market.

Regarding state management of growing area codes and packaging facility codes, Ms. Cao Thi Hoa Binh - Head of the Department of Cultivation and Plant Protection of Lao Cai province - informed that by 2023, Lao Cai will still have 13 growing area codes and 7 packaging facility codes that meet export standards.

Regarding some difficulties in granting and managing growing area codes and packaging facility codes, Ms. Cao Thi Hoa Binh said that the requirements on standards of the importing country (China) for agricultural products are increasingly strict and frequently change, causing certain difficulties for localities and exporting enterprises in the process of updating information as well as applying implementation.

The issuance of new growing area codes has come into operation, so the awareness of some subjects is still limited; the management of growing area codes is still difficult. Some localities, organizations and individuals have only focused on expanding the number of growing areas and packaging facilities without paying due attention to strictly complying with the requirements of the importing country.

Some key industries and products of the province currently have great export advantages but are not yet listed in the Protocol and Order 248, Order 249 (such as pineapple, medicinal herbs, etc.). In particular, the cinnamon industry has a large production area but is still not strictly controlled in terms of growing areas (there are no specific instructions on granting growing area codes for cinnamon trees). Therefore, although some localities have proposed granting growing area codes for cinnamon trees, they have not been able to do so due to the lack of instructions.

The management of growing area codes for organizations, individual businesses and cooperatives has only stopped at following instructions, and the capture and provision of information to businesses still has many limitations...

Businesses cannot export without understanding the market.

At the Conference, Ms. Phan Thi Men - Director of SUTECH Science and Technology Consulting Company introduced an overview of Order 248 of China Customs, the difficulties of enterprises when applying the actual export of agricultural products to the Chinese market and the US and India; providing specific guidance on some typical products of Lao Cai such as: cassava slices, spices (cinnamon, star anise, ...), tea, bananas, pineapples, medicinal herbs ... to the Chinese market.

Ms. Phan Thi Men said that after 30 months of implementing Order 248 of the Chinese Customs, Vietnam has registered more than 3,000 export codes to the Chinese market and they have been divided into product groups and brought to specialized agencies of the Ministry and branches for management.

Particularly in Lao Cai, businesses have exported a number of agricultural products such as bananas, cassava, cardamom, etc. However, many potential agricultural products of the province have not yet reached the Chinese market. The export of agricultural products to markets around the world is still limited due to many reasons such as changes in policies of neighboring countries, Vietnamese businesses have not yet grasped timely information of importing countries, etc.

Citing this issue, Ms. Phan Thi Men said that last year we advised about 500 enterprises exporting to the Chinese market. During the consultation process, there was a very large exporting enterprise with a revenue of tens of thousands of billions a year that applied for export to China but did not meet the requirements simply because it could not prove the source of water that the enterprise used. If the enterprise deliberately did not comply, it would be very difficult to participate in the export game.

“With the Chinese market , there have been many changes recently. If businesses do not grasp information and policies, they will have to fall behind,” Ms. Phan Thi Men recommended.

Products managed under Order 248, from a consulting perspective SUTECH has also completed many instructions for units in the industry to be able to successfully export to the Chinese market. In addition to consulting activities, the company also receives many problems from businesses.

“With the regular coordination of the consulting unit and departments, some provinces, especially those with favorable borders with China, also share concerns about the product registration process, changes in the Chinese market, and necessary regulations and requirements to boost agricultural exports to the Chinese market and other countries in the world,” said Ms. Men.

Standardizing product quality according to China's requirements is the most important solution to achieve high efficiency in official exports as well as opening the door for many other products to enter this market in the future.

Therefore, on the local side, Mr. Nguyen Quang Vinh said that he will continue to support the development of concentrated commodity material areas with quality certified to meet advanced standards (VietGAP, organic, HACCP, ISO 22000...) to serve agricultural product exports.

Strengthening production linkages with processing and product consumption to increase the value of agricultural products for export; promoting the transfer of scientific and technological applications in production, preservation and processing to improve the quality and competitive value of agricultural products.

Source: https://congthuong.vn/lao-cai-ban-cach-thao-go-kho-khan-thuc-day-xuat-khau-nong-san-sang-trung-quoc-337195.html