Sample fruits being checked for export to China at Tân Thanh Border Gate, Lạng Sơn Province.  — VNA/VNS Photo Quang Duy

HÀ NỘI — Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Đặng Hoàng An held talks with Deputy Head of the Chinese State Administration for Market Supervision (SAMR) Pu Chun in Hà Nội on Monday, during which they exchanged information and experience in market management as well as discussed opportunities for boosting cooperation between the two sides.

The meeting was expected to mark a start for cooperation between the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT), the Vietnam Directorate of Market Surveillance (DMS) and the SARM, An said.

Pu Chun, for his part, said that MoIT was the first agency a SARM leader had visited since its establishment in 2018, expressing his willingness and wish to increase cooperation with the MoIT and its DMS, especially in food safety inspection and management.

The cooperation in market surveillance would contribute to facilitating the import of high-quality food and agricultural products from Việt Nam for consumption in China and create a base to strengthen the stable and long–term trade cooperation between the two countries.

Head of the DMS Trần Hữu Linh suggested the two sides increase the exchange of information to increase the effectiveness of preventing counterfeit goods, particularly food of unknown origin, amid a boom in e-commerce.

Linh also said that a memorandum of understanding on cooperation between the MoIT and the SAMR should be signed soon to step up the information exchanges.

Statistics by Vietnamese Customs showed that trade between Việt Nam and China reached US$175.56 billion last year, up 5.47 per cent from 2021, of which Việt Nam’s exports were valued at $57.7 billion, up 3.18 per cent.

Notably, China remained Việt Nam’s biggest trade partner, largest exporter and second biggest buyer, after only the US.

In the first four months of this year, the export of agro – forestry – fishery products to China reached $3.14 billion. Việt Nam imported about $939.7 million worth of agricultural products from China in the period.

A potential market

Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Trần Thành Nam said that China, with a population of 1.41 billion and average income per capita of $13,800 in 2022, was a potential market for Vietnamese agricultural products.

Nam, however, said that the demand for cross-border trade between the two countries was huge, putting pressure on the infrastructure system, and urging more attention to invest in upgrading the infrastructure system.

Enterprises from the two countries should enhance cooperation to establish supply chains for agricultural products, Nam said. He pointed out that the cooperation of enterprises between the two sides lacked sustainability. Thus, disruptions easily occurred, adding that the two sides still bought and sold sporadically and did not understand the upcoming demand for goods. “There is no sustainable connection due to the lack of information,” he said.

Nam said that the ministry recently worked with Yunnan and Guangxi provinces on the founding of an association of agricultural product enterprises, a bold move towards establishing sustainable supply chains based on an understanding of market supply and demand.

China was a huge market and no longer an easy market, Nam said, urging Vietnamese firms to meet the quality requirements of China to export sustainably. —VNS