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Container trucks waiting for customs clearance at a border gate in Lang Son Province. (Photo: TPO) |
At peak hours, it is easy to witness nearly 1,000 trucks, most of which transport agricultural products, waiting to complete the customs clearance procedures, but the processing capacity is only a half.
The main reason of this temporary congestion is that it is the harvesting season of many fruit crops (durian, jackfruit) now. Since most of these fruits are exported to China, the Northern border gates have to serve a higher quantity of produce trucks.
Particularly, Dong Dang Border Gate in Lang Son Province reported until March 30, there were still 732 container trucks and smaller ones waiting for customs clearance. 582 of them are transporting fruits. Statistics also reveal that each day, 70-80 container trucks are carrying fruits to Huu Nghi Border Gate (official export border gate), and another 150-180 fruit trucks to Tan Thanh Border Gate. Many of them are cleared for the first time, meaning it takes longer time to complete the procedure.
Forecasts show that until July, more fruit crops enter their own harvesting phase. Therefore, Lang Son Province Industry and Trade Department proposed that related associations notify businesses in their industry to reduce the number of trucks coming to Northern border gates at one time or to choose other export channels in order to avoid congestion that might lead to damages like previous years.
Deputy Head Hoang Khanh Duy of the Management Board for Dong Dang Border Gate Economic Zone stated that to ease the current congestion of trucks transporting imported or exported goods, the customs forces of both Vietnam and China have agreed to increase the working time for customs clearance to 7:00 p.m. each day. The time for the task to imported goods might be to 10:00 p.m.
As a result, the congestion has been reduced significantly, with the vehicles left mostly being empty container trucks that are waiting to load goods from China. At present, no case of exported fruit trucks having to return home for fear of spoilt goods is reported.
