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Provinces slow to register for China fruit export deal
The registration process of fruit orchards and packing plants for a trade agreement with China is taking too long, an official from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) said.
The growers and the packers are not registering fast enough with their provincial or city authorities, many of which still haven’t reported their registry lists to the government, Pham Dong Quang, deputy head of the Department of Cultivation under the ministry, told the online newspaper VietNamNet last week.
According to the trade agreement from July 1, watermelon, longan, lychee, banana, cassava and dragon fruit to be exported to China must be harvested and packed by registered orchards and packaging factories.
China must also provide the Vietnamese government with lists of its registered orchards and fruit packing factories that export to Vietnam.
Only 31 Vietnamese provinces and cities, or less than half, have registered, Lao Dong newspaper reported Saturday, citing the Cultivation Department.
The northern province of Bac Giang, which ships 40 percent of its lychee output to China, has registered only 2,900 hectares or 7.4 percent of its total 39,000 hectares of lychee farms.
The northern province of Hung Yen, one of the north’s longan baskets, has yet to report that any of its farms and packing factories have registered for exporting to China.
MARD said it would finalize the list on June 25 to send to China before July 1.
China is the biggest buyer of Vietnam’s agricultural products, last year importing produce worth US$1.9 billion, mainly latex, cashew, cassava, coffee, fruits and vegetables.
Nguyen Minh Chau, Head of the Southern Fruit Research Institute, said a huge amount of Vietnamese fruits, including longan and dragon fruit from the south and lychees from the north, are shipped to China without proper documentation.
Phung Huu Hao, Deputy Head of the National Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Quality Administrative Directorate under MARD, said fruit exporters could boost sales if they met the new export regulations, explaining that fruit without registration of origin fetches a lower price.
Many Vietnamese vendors carry their fruit produce to China markets without a contract, forcing prices down and leading to an over-supply, he said.
In early April, tons of fruit for export without proper registration didn’t find buyers and went rotten at the Tan Thanh Border Gate in Lang Son Province, media had reported.
“Bilateral control measures will help trace origins of products to ensure consumer health and fair trade between the two countries,” the Saigon Times Daily quoted Deputy Minister Luong Le Phuong as saying earlier this month.
Hao said the two sides would update the lists often.
thanhnien, agencies
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