Vietnam's fruits town accelerates export to China
Friday, 21 September 2007
LANG SON, Vietnam, Sept 20 (Xinhua): Yellowish cardboard boxes full of dried litchis and longans were packed as sardines in dozens of warehouses in Dong Dang town, northern Lang Son province, waiting for being transported to China.
"There are 60-70 shops in this area. Each shop is a warehouse. A big warehouse can store 500-1,000 tons of fruits, mostly dried litchis, longans and longan pulp. More and more Chinese traders are buying our products, Bui Thi Men, a 30-year- old resident of the border town's Day Thep area, told Xinhua recently, pointing her hand to cardboard boxes piled up in her shop, also her warehouse.
Her shop sells 30 tons of dried fruits a day on average, even 50-60 tons in peak fruit season, boasted the young woman having a brisk working style, born in northern Hung Yen province, a Vietnamese locality famous for fine longans. "Our customers come from mainly Guangxi, Zhejiang, Fujian and Sichuan. They like dried litchis best, then longan pulp and longans."
In the next few months, the warehouses in the Day Thep area will no longer store dried fruits, but seafood, which is also favoured by many Chinese traders and consumers, she said.
"Having two international border gates, our town is a transit point for different kinds of goods, especially fresh and dried fruits and seafood across Vietnam to be exported to China. Trade with China is becoming more and more effervescent," Sai Vinh Chung, vice chairman of the Dong Dang People's Committee, said, noting that up to 85 per cent of all 1,178 households in the town engage in trading, including selling and transporting fruits and seafood to China.
Every month, different goods worth some 14 million US dollars are imported or exported between Vietnamese and Chinese traders via the international border gate of Dong Dang, he said, adding that the figure via the other international border gate is about 13 million dollars.
Under a recent plan worked out by Vietnam's Ministry of Industry and Trade, the country will set up fruit and vegetable wholesale markets in areas bordering China, and upgrade freezing facilities to better preserve the products for export.
The ministry will ask trade departments to make reports on the numbers of enterprises and business households which frequently export large volumes of fruits and vegetables to China, aiming to turn them into big exporters. It will also direct the Vietnamese trade section to coordinate with relevant agencies to promote fruit and vegetable exports in large volumes via official channels, and provide local exporters with update market information.
Vietnam exported 204 million US dollars worth of fruits and vegetables, mostly to China's mainland, Japan, China's Taiwan and Singapore, in the first eight months of this year, a year-on- year surge of 19.4 per cent, according to the ministry's Trade Information Centre.
Vietnam has planned to reap 760 million dollars in 2010 and 1.2 billion dollars in 2020 from exporting fruits and vegetables, up from 263 million dollars in 2006.
To this end, the country is promoting cooperation and coordination between the state, enterprises, scientists and farmers so that they can produce bigger volumes of fruits and vegetables with higher quality at lower costs to meet big orders from such markets as China, the United States, Japan and Australia. It is also encouraging farmers to apply an orchard- growing model in accordance with the international standard of Good Agriculture Practice.
"There are 60-70 shops in this area. Each shop is a warehouse. A big warehouse can store 500-1,000 tons of fruits, mostly dried litchis, longans and longan pulp. More and more Chinese traders are buying our products, Bui Thi Men, a 30-year- old resident of the border town's Day Thep area, told Xinhua recently, pointing her hand to cardboard boxes piled up in her shop, also her warehouse.
Her shop sells 30 tons of dried fruits a day on average, even 50-60 tons in peak fruit season, boasted the young woman having a brisk working style, born in northern Hung Yen province, a Vietnamese locality famous for fine longans. "Our customers come from mainly Guangxi, Zhejiang, Fujian and Sichuan. They like dried litchis best, then longan pulp and longans."
In the next few months, the warehouses in the Day Thep area will no longer store dried fruits, but seafood, which is also favoured by many Chinese traders and consumers, she said.
"Having two international border gates, our town is a transit point for different kinds of goods, especially fresh and dried fruits and seafood across Vietnam to be exported to China. Trade with China is becoming more and more effervescent," Sai Vinh Chung, vice chairman of the Dong Dang People's Committee, said, noting that up to 85 per cent of all 1,178 households in the town engage in trading, including selling and transporting fruits and seafood to China.
Every month, different goods worth some 14 million US dollars are imported or exported between Vietnamese and Chinese traders via the international border gate of Dong Dang, he said, adding that the figure via the other international border gate is about 13 million dollars.
Under a recent plan worked out by Vietnam's Ministry of Industry and Trade, the country will set up fruit and vegetable wholesale markets in areas bordering China, and upgrade freezing facilities to better preserve the products for export.
The ministry will ask trade departments to make reports on the numbers of enterprises and business households which frequently export large volumes of fruits and vegetables to China, aiming to turn them into big exporters. It will also direct the Vietnamese trade section to coordinate with relevant agencies to promote fruit and vegetable exports in large volumes via official channels, and provide local exporters with update market information.
Vietnam exported 204 million US dollars worth of fruits and vegetables, mostly to China's mainland, Japan, China's Taiwan and Singapore, in the first eight months of this year, a year-on- year surge of 19.4 per cent, according to the ministry's Trade Information Centre.
Vietnam has planned to reap 760 million dollars in 2010 and 1.2 billion dollars in 2020 from exporting fruits and vegetables, up from 263 million dollars in 2006.
To this end, the country is promoting cooperation and coordination between the state, enterprises, scientists and farmers so that they can produce bigger volumes of fruits and vegetables with higher quality at lower costs to meet big orders from such markets as China, the United States, Japan and Australia. It is also encouraging farmers to apply an orchard- growing model in accordance with the international standard of Good Agriculture Practice.