When EVFTA took effect from August 1-8 immediately Trung An High-Tech Agriculture Joint Stock Company (Can Tho City) signed a contract to sell 3000 tons of rice to 3 customers of Germany and France with 2 rice varieties are ST20 and Jasmine. Mr. Pham Thai Binh, general director of this enterprise (DN), said the ST20 rice price that the company exported to the EU reached over 1000 USD /ton, Jasmine rice reached about 600 USD /ton. While in the past, the price of ST20 rice exported to the EU was only about 800 USD /ton, Jasmine rice 520 USD /ton. Following this event, at the end of September, Loc Troi Group (An Giang) also exported 126 tons of Jasmine 85 fragrant rice to the EU.
In fruit products, Vina T&T Company (Ben Tre) has exported by sea and air, including 20000 fresh coconuts to the UK market, 12 tons of green grapefruit to Germany and 3 tons of dragon fruit to the Netherlands. On average, each week, this unit will export about 20 tons of all kinds of fruits to the EU.
For seafood products, in the first months of 2020 due to the influence of Covid-19 epidemic, shrimp exports to the EU market plummeted. However, since the EVFTA came into effect and the EU has well controlled the disease, Vietnam’s shrimp exports to this market have recovered and increased slightly. Accordingly, shrimp exports to the EU in August were estimated to increase about 20% year-on-year. According to the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), as soon as the EVFTA comes into effect, export taxes on many Vietnamese shrimp products such as frozen green lobster, frozen HOSO tiger shrimp, DP frozen, and iron shrimp PD freshly frozen; shrimps with shells, whole and frozen sawn shrimps from 12.5% were reduced to 0%. Especially, all kinds of black tiger shrimp with tax rate from 20% will also be eliminated immediately.
Seafood Mekong Delta has the opportunity to compete with many other countries when exporting to Europe with the tax rate of 0%. Photo: NGOC TRINH
Mr. Tran Hai Long, Deputy Director of Can Tho City Department of Industry and Trade, said: “From August 1-8 to September 30 the Department of Industry and Trade issued 213 sets of C /O (certificates of origin) to enterprises. Exporting goods to the EU with a turnover of 15.9 million USD, mainly rice, seafood, fruits Particularly in Can Tho, there are 4 enterprises participating in fruit export to the EU, including products: seedless lemons and Nam Roi grapefruit, mango, dragon fruit”.
Mr. Duong Tan Hien, Vice Chairman of Can Tho City People’s Committee, commented that EVFTA opens up great opportunities for Vietnamese agricultural products in general and Can Tho city in particular. “EVFTA helps Vietnam’s agricultural products reach out, with the tax rate of 0%, the agricultural products have the opportunity to compete with other countries and export conditions become more favorable. Department of Industry and Trade coordinates with many other departments and branches to propagate and mobilize for businesses to understand and take advantage of this opportunity “- Mr. Hien said.
However, the EU is a market with very strict requirements on technical barriers, so products exported here must meet the standards required by importers. According to Mr. Pham Thai Binh, previously, Trung An High-Tech Agriculture Joint Stock Company also exported rice to the EU, so it is understood that this market always requires very high quality. Products must have clear growing areas, traceability and GlobalGAP certification (good agricultural practices), VietGAP or equivalent and ensure no residues of plant protection drugs. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development also recommends businesses and farmers to pay attention, need to thoroughly understand the EU market requirements (in terms of food quality, safety and origin). Besides, businesses need to work closely with farmers to build standard raw material areas to meet market requirements.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, preliminary statistics after more than 1 month EVFTA was implemented, the value of agricultural, forestry and aquatic products exported to the EU reached about 350 million USD, up 17% over the previous month.
Ca Linh
Source: nld.com.vn – Translated by fintel.vn
