Agricultural export struggles for overcoming difficulties

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Cashew nuts: Cashew processing enterprises (in Xuan Loc district) still make efforts to maintain production activities despite difficulties. Photo: Nam Vu

However, it is forecasted that agricultural exports, especially food products, including fresh fruits and vegetables will recover gradually and may increase sharply when the COVID-19 epidemic is under control.

Export Stagnation

Dong Nai currently has many key fruit trees with the top area of the country as: bananas - with more than 10 thousand hectares, mango - nearly 12 thousand hectares, durian - nearly 7 thousand hectares, etc,, of which, 60-80% of all fruit trees are exported to China. The peak harvest of these fruits is from April to August each year.

Since the Lunar New Year 2020 to date, many specialized fruits for export such as jackfruit, mango, dragon fruit, etc., often stand at low prices because of difficulties in export due to the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic. In particular, the most serious damage is the mango farmers because many areas in the harvest season from March to April - the period when China often closes the gate of not importing goods due to the effects of the COVID-19 epidemic.

Mr. Nguyen The Bao, Director of Suoi Lon Mango Cooperative (Xuan Hung Commune, Xuan Loc District) lamented to share, this region saw a harvest in late March and early April just when China temporarily closed its border because of the outbreak of COVID-19. Accordingly, many growers let mangoes ripen and fell to the garden because there were no collectors - due to inability to export, demand in the domestic market also plummeted. Mr. Bao lamented: “Many farmers are empty handed in this harvest. Currently, China re-imports goods, but the source of mango is still plentiful so the selling price has remained at the lowest level in the past 10 years”.   Specifically, the price of Hoa Loc mangoes at the same time last year sold in the garden was around VND 50,000/kg, currently only about VND 10,000/kg; Thai and Taiwan mangoes are 4-5 thousand VND/kg, mangoes in the rainy season are 1.5 - 1.8 thousand VND/kg.

The harvest this year, cashew nuts prices are also record low in recent years with the level from 16-18 thousand VND/kg making cashew farmers to make losses even after the whole year waiting to be harvested. The owner of a cashew processing enterprise in Xuan Truong commune (Xuan Loc district) said that after the Lunar New Year in 2020, the business was temporarily shut down because it could not cope with difficulties. According to this business owner, during the past time, the cashew processing and exporting industry faced many difficulties. For the whole year, the said businesses have almost no profits, many losses due to the sharp decrease in export cashew prices, fewer and fewer orders. The reason this business stopped operating because there were no export orders from the beginning of 2020, the consumption in the domestic market also decreased.

Mango: Although China has reopened its imports, the price of mangoes still remains low. Photo: Harvesting mangoes at Dinh Quan District. Photo: Nam Vu

Expecting that the export market of agricultural products will prosper when the COVID-19 epidemic is under control, Mr. Pham Thanh Dong, Director of Quyet Tien Agricultural, Service, and Agricultural Cooperative (Xuan My commune, Cam My District) shared that recently, trading activities with China have shown signs of prosperity, traders have started to buy back many fruits such as bananas, mangoes, dragon fruits,... for export. Mr. Pham Thanh Dong advised that export activities to China are gradually recovering, the demand for food products, including fresh fruits of this market is very large. However, unofficial exports are still being tightened and easily closed. “Enterprises and traders should invest to switch to official export through seaports, which is less likely to be closed as roads” - Mr. Dong said.

In the same opinion, Mr. Pham Van Tuan, owner of Tuan Sang Private Enterprise (Tay Hoa commune, Trang Bom district) operating in the field of processing and exporting cashew nuts, said that businesses in the cashew processing industry are facing difficulties but still trying to maintain production, waiting for the export market to restart. “Enterprises are still trying to buy cashew nuts for farmers, but the biggest difficulty right now is in terms of capital. We hope the State has policies to support businesses to access preferential loans to maintain operations.” - Mr. Tuan said.