The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) held an online forum on the consumption of agricultural products of Long An Province in the HCMC market and the export through the Northern border gates on December 11 at the Agricultural Trade Promotion Center in Hanoi.
At the forum, Mr. Le Thanh Hoa, Deputy Head of the Agro Processing and Market Development Authority under the MARD, informed that by December 10, around 4,000 trucks carrying agricultural products and goods had been jammed because they could not carry out customs clearance procedures in Lang Son Province while parking lots had been fully occupied.
As for Quang Ninh Province, according to the Mong Cai Border Gate Management Board, on December 11, 800 trucks carrying frozen seafood products, such as basa fish and shrimp, and 300 containers of fruits and vegetables were stuck there. As for fresh seafood products, customs clearance remains smooth.
Mr. Le Thanh Hoa also informed that at Huu Nghi, Tan Thanh, and Chi Ma border gates in Lang Son Province, the customs clearance capacity was reduced by 50 percent, to only about 220 vehicles per day. The total clearance capacity of the three border gates reaches an average of only 500 vehicles per day. Agricultural products congested in Tan Thanh Border Gate include dragon fruit and jackfruit. On average, it takes 10-14 days for each truck to get customs clearance.
Speaking at the forum, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Tran Thanh Nam suggested that localities in the South Central, the Southeast region, the Mekong Delta in general, and Long An Province, in particular, should update information from border gates in Lang Son, Quang Ninh, Lao Cai provinces to help businesses regulate the flow of goods, avoiding congestion when bringing goods to the border gates. To reduce the risk of congestion during customs clearance, enterprises need to promote official exports, do transactions with contracts, and exploit the opportunity in which China is about to open the market for passion fruit, durian, and sweet potato of Vietnam through official channels.
At this forum, Mr. Dinh Minh Hiep, Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of HCMC, said that the current demand for agricultural products of HCMC residents was more than 8,200 tons per day. In which vegetables and fruits were more than 4,200 tons per day, rice was about 2,000 tons per day, and cattle meat was nearly 1,000 tons per day.
According to Mr. Hiep, the demand for goods for the upcoming Lunar New Year in HCMC is extremely high, especially livestock and poultry products. It is forecasted that during the Lunar New Year, the demand for pork will increase by 30-70 percent, poultry meat by 12-14 percent, and cattle meat by 40-60 percent.
