Covid-19 hurts Vietnamese fruit and vegetable shipments to China

Statistics from the General Department of Vietnam Customs indicated that Vietnam exported fruits and vegetables worth US$280 million overseas in January, dropping by 20.9% year-on-year.  Of the total, the country shipped US$173 million worth of fruits and vegetables to China, which accounted for 61.8% of Vietnam’s total revenue from fruit and vegetable exports, dipping by 32.6% year-on-year.

Though the January revenue from Vietnamese fruit and vegetable exports to Thailand skyrocketed by 162.2% against the year-ago period, it failed to keep the country’s revenue from fruit and vegetable outbound shipments from falling in January due to the deep decline in these exports to China.

Due to the fast spreading virus, several border gates and crossings with China had to be closed, preventing hundreds of container trucks full of produce from being shipped to the neighboring country, leading to the drop in export revenue.

Dr Luong Ngoc Trung Lap, former head of the market research department of the Southern Fruit Research Institute, told the Saigon Times that two-way trade between Vietnam and China has stagnated due to the limit of goods exchange at borders.

Although border gates and crossings have reopened, the number of farm produce container trucks crossing the borders remains low due to difficulties related to manpower, Lap noted.

“Besides this, China has restricted its residents from leaving their homes owing to coronavirus fears, affecting buying and selling activities,” he said, predicting that it will take the Chinese market a long time to rebound.

China is the main consumption market for Vietnam’s farm produce, and the country’s production still depends heavily on the demand of the Chinese market, so when China runs into difficulties, its impact on the local market, mainly the agricultural sector, is unavoidable.