EU market, an important test for Vietnamese agricultural products

About the past 5 years, the structure of agricultural products exported to the EU has diversified in a positive direction. The EU is Vietnam's fourth largest fruit and vegetable export market, accounting for about 5.5% of the total export turnover of this item. According to the General Department of Customs, the export turnover of vegetables and fruits to the EU in 2021 reached 193.7 million USD, up 7.6% over the same period in 2020.

However, according to Mr. Nguyen Trung Kien, Department of International Cooperation (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development), seafood and vegetables still account for a low proportion in the EU market, specifically vegetables and fruits account for only 0.2% of the market share and seafood. accounted for 2.1% of the market. Moreover, it is also subject to competition from the Chinese and Thai markets.

The reason pointed out by Mr. Kien still comes from the fact that Vietnam mainly exports raw products, with low growth potential. In order to better exploit the "piece of cake" market share, Mr. Kien said that it is not equal to quantity but needs to increase the value of the product. Because at present, most of Vietnam's products have not reached the EU's final customer channels, mainly distributed through intermediary channels or retail systems.

One more fact for Vietnam's agricultural products when exporting to the EU is that there is still a situation of agricultural products and seafood being recalled or warned about agrochemical residues exceeding the prescribed level. The European Union's Food and Feed Safety Warning System (RASFF) has issued many warnings for Vietnamese export shipments to the EU that violate food safety regulations.

In 2021 alone, RASFF has issued 40 warnings to Vietnam's agricultural export shipments to the EU, including shipments of vegetables and fruits such as rambutan , grapefruit, coconut milk, straw mushrooms, and seafood. there are octopus, oysters, frozen shrimp, frozen fish…

Moreover, the problem of post-harvest losses is one of the reasons that make Vietnamese agricultural products, especially fruits, difficult to compete in the EU market. According to incomplete statistics of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, post-harvest losses of Vietnamese agricultural products account for a large number of 20-25%, equivalent to about 8.8 million tons, about 3.9 billion USD per year. . In which, the high percentage is vegetables and seafood.

Preservation technology is considered a key, "survival" that many Vietnamese businesses need to pay attention to if they want to bring vegetables, fruits, and fruits to the EU market. Nguyen Dinh Tung, Chairman of the Board of Directors, General Director of Vina T&T Group, an enterprise specializing in exporting fresh fruits and vegetables to major markets such as the US, Australia, Canada and the EU, said that the EU market is the market where businesses This industry is the most difficult to penetrate.

“Exporting goods through the EU, businesses there continue to sell to consumers for at least 2 weeks. Consumers buy it home and use it for at least 3 days. Thus, Vietnamese goods exported to the EU must be guaranteed to withstand 30 days, and currently our products are only left for 2-3 days, importers do not accept them. Survival for development is preservation technology”.

Mr. Tung wondered: “Why is Vietnam the cradle of lychee but cannot be exported? Chinese fabrics are now overflowing in the US, EU, and Southeast Asian countries. China went to Vietnam again to buy fabric. Mr. Tung questioned how China's lychee preservation technology can bring goods so far, "I can't believe that Chinese litchi coming to the US is still very fresh, beautiful and red".

The preservation technology itself has not met the requirements, leading many businesses to choose the way to export by air to shorten the transportation time. This makes the product price go up, making it difficult for Vietnamese fruit to compete.

Mr. Nguyen Trung Kien, Department of International Cooperation gave evidence, 1kg of Vietnamese mangoes to the EU cost about 6 euros, or 1kg of passion fruit sold to this market is also about 12 euros if exported by air, The cost of the team is very large, so it is very difficult for Vietnamese fruit to compete.

Logistics costs for agricultural development in Vietnam are 6% higher than in Thailand, 12% in Malaysia and 300% higher than in Singapore. In addition, due to the size of small orders and the lack of linkages between exporters, Vietnam's agricultural, forestry and fishery products to the EU are susceptible to price pressure from shipping fleets, increasing logistics costs.

Source: Kim Anh - nongnghiepviet.vn