Việt Nam exported farm produce and seafood worth millions of dollars to China through borders in Quảng Ninh, Lạng Sơn and Lào Cai during the Lunar New Year (Tết) holiday. 

On February 12, the third day of the Year of the Dragon, authorities at the Bắc Luân 2 Bridge border gate in Móng Cái City handled export procedures for nearly 60 tonnes of live seafood, comprising lobster and crab, worth over US$781,000.

Earlier, the Vietnamese and Chinese sides had agreed on the Tết holiday plan for the Móng Cái (Việt Nam) – Dongxing (China) international border gate. Accordingly, the two international facilities were scheduled to suspend handling customs clearance procedures from February 10 through 17 at the Bắc Luân 2 Bridge border gate, along with the pair of the Dongxing border market and the Km3 4 Hải Yên border crossing.

After a discussion with Vietnamese authorities, however, the Chinese side decided to allow imports, mainly fresh produce from Việt Nam, to enter its country from February 12.

During the seven-day Tết holiday, nearly 13,000 tonnes of agricultural products were also exported to China via Hữu Nghị and Tân Thanh border gates in Lạng Sơn Province. 

Nguyễn Đình Đại, Director of Lạng Sơn’s Department of Industry and Trade, said that since the holiday, there had been no congestion of goods at local border gates thanks to the authorities’ efforts to strengthen regulation and active work before Tết.

Meanwhile, border gates in Lào Cai Province had been operating throughout Tết, with a very large volume of goods, mainly fruits and vegetables.

Trade activities through the province's Kim Thành II International Border Gate reached about $13 million in the first five days of Tết (February 10-14), over 3.5 times higher than the same period of the previous holiday.

Of the sum, $12.2 million came from Vietnamese exports, up 319 per cent over the same period last year. Among major exported staples were fresh fruits such as dragon fruit, durian, watermelon, grapefruit, jackfruit, rambutan, mango and banana. Import value from the market also saw a slight increase of 4.3 per cent to over $681,000. 

According to trade experts, the demand in the Chinese market for Vietnamese agricultural products and fresh fruits during the Lunar New Year period was usually very high. Meanwhile, Vietnamese enterprises also needed to import more consumer goods and machinery components for the domestic market, driving the significant increase in cross-border trade between the countries.

Following positive performance during the Tết holiday, cross-border trade showed good signals and all customs clearance procedures have returned to normal since February 18.

At Móng Cái International Border Gate, on February 18, 95 vehicles transported over 900 tonnes of agricultural products worth around $3.7 million to China.

Vương Trinh Quốc, head of the management board of Lào Cai Economic Zone, forecast that trade with China would flourish even more this year.

After the state-level visit to Việt Nam by Party General Secretary and President of China Xi Jinping, the country announced that it would open its market to many potential Vietnamese agricultural products, including fresh coconuts, frozen fruit, citrus fruit, avocados, bananas, custard apples and water apples, vietnamplus.vn reported. — VNS