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Challenges and opportunities
As of July 1, five key Vietnamese farm products, namely litchi, longan, dragon fruit, water melon and banana, will require a certificate of origin (CO) before being exported to the Chinese market.
At short notice, many local traders are finding it difficult to respond in a timely manner.
How to meet the requirement
At present, many litchi gardens in the northern provinces of Hai Duong and Bac Giang are in harvest time. Vu Dinh Phuong, deputy director of the Bac Giang provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, says: “As China now applies new standards on Vietnamese farm products, we have asked local gardeners to register the origin and the production process of their agricultural products in line with VietGAP standards (Good Agriculture Practices of Vietnamese fresh fruit and vegetable producers).”
By June 8, however, only 5 percent of gardeners (owning 2,900 of out the total 39,000 hectares of litchi in the two provinces) had registered to meet the requirement.
Despite such efforts, the Hai Duong provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development estimates that only 4,700 out of Hai Duong’s total 14,000 hectares of litchi (mostly grown in Thanh Ha district) are certified being of known origin.
According to the Planting Department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rual Development (MARD), as of June 8, only 29 out of 63 provinces and cities nationwide have sent reports on their growing area acreage and plant origin registration to the Department, which is authorised to process registrations for the above-said five farm products.
Pham Dong Quang, deputy head of the Planting Department, says that Vietnamese authorities are responsible for compiling and submitting related papers to Chinese partners. But it is quite difficult to meet their requirement for lack of time and detailed information on sales by private traders for domestic consumption and export.
Regarding this issue, Nguyen Nhu Tiep, deputy head of the National Agro-Forestry and Fisheries Quality Assurance Department (Nafiqaved) under the MARD, says that the Chinese side has just asked Vietnam to provide a list of fruit growing areas.
Compromise better than lawsuit
Both Vietnam and China are committed to implementing quarantine regulations on import-export items under the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures Agreement. In addition, Vietnam has also asked China to obey these regulations for fruits exported to Vietnam including oranges, apples and pears.
Dao Tran Nhan, deputy head of the Asia-Pacific Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) says that the ministry has set up a working team to help Vietnamese enterprises to iron out snags in exporting their fruits to China.
In his view, these regulations may affect Vietnam’s fruit exports to China, but will create favourable conditions for both countries to cooperate in the long term.
Nhan recommends that Vietnamese enterprises should obey Chinese regulations to avoid running into more trouble than it is worth. The Chinese side has no intention of causing any difficulties to Vietnamese enterprises, he adds. However, they take a more pragmatic approach to problem solving with Chinese partners. Transactions should be documented with contracts and bills of sale; product origins should be certified and food hygiene and safety should be ensured.
More important still, Vietnamese enterprises should never consider China as a dumping ground for cheap and poor quality products. For its part, China has adjusted its import policies to improve the quality of products flowing into the country. If all requirements are met, Vietnam’s exports to China will be back on track, Nhan concludes.
VOV
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