Honey exports worry about trade defense barriers

Customers choose to buy honey at the Fruit Honor Week in Dong Nai province held in Long Khanh city. Photo: B.Nguyen

The beekeeping industry continues to face great difficulties due to the impact of the Covid-19 epidemic, which has caused beekeepers to quit their jobs in large numbers. The decrease in supply than demand is the reason why the price of honey in the market is currently increasing, but it is still difficult for farmers to restore production.

* Export is difficult

At the end of 2021, the US Department of Commerce (DOC) issued preliminary conclusions on the case of anti-dumping investigation on Vietnamese honey products and imposed anti-dumping tax on Vietnamese honey from 410.93 -413.99%. After that, the anti-dumping tax rate on US honey products officially applied to Vietnamese enterprises fell sharply, to 58.74-61.27%.

However, with this tax rate, Vietnamese honey is in a weak position when competing with honey from many other countries exporting to the US. Specifically, the anti-dumping duty that the US applies to India is only 5.85% while the rate applied to Vietnam is 58.74-61.27%. With this tax rate, Vietnamese honey cannot compete with Indian honey in the US market.

In recent years, the competition in the world honey market has become increasingly fierce. Honey-importing countries applying trade remedies have also increased technical barriers to this product. This is not only a big challenge for honey export enterprises, but also has a great impact on the livelihoods of bee farmers.

Ms. Huynh Thi Ngoc, owner of Ngoc Thuy honey facility in Xuan Hoa commune (Xuan Loc district), shared that her family has been engaged in beekeeping and trading for more than 20 years. The export market has never been as difficult as it is now. Many large honey export enterprises in the province reduced the scale of operations, even closed.

According to Ms. Ngoc: "Vietnam's beekeeping practice is nomadic, living here and there to move bees to areas with large sources of flowers and nectar-producing plants for camping. Activities of bee farms are usually temporary and simple. Meanwhile, the standards of countries importing this item are getting higher and higher for the farming process, especially food hygiene."

* It is difficult for beekeepers to stay with the profession

Currently, the price of honey sold at farms is being purchased by traders and businesses at a much higher rate than every year. However, beekeepers are more sad than happy because the profit achieved is not as expected.

Director of the Agricultural Cooperative Beekeeping - Trade and Services Hang Gon Nguyen Tan Minh said that the price of honey sold at the farm increased quite high compared to the same period last year. The reason is that the supply has dropped sharply because of the recent harvest, and beekeepers have lost their crops badly due to adverse weather conditions and the impact of the Covid-19 epidemic.

Currently is the beekeeping season, not the honey autumn, only the farms that still store honey can sell them at a good profit. In addition, the production cost of 1 liter of honey increased by 10-15% compared to before because all input costs increased, causing many difficulties for farmers.

Dong Nai is one of the major beekeeping and honey exporting provinces of the country. In which, many farms are large-scale with farmers who have been with the profession for decades. After the recent Covid-19 epidemic, many long-term farming households have quit their jobs and cannot survive the epidemic. When the market recovered, they had no capital to rebuild new herds.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Ngoc, a long-time beekeeper in Gia Kiem commune (Thong Nhat district), shared that beekeeping used to be a good income earner for farmers. But in the past few years, farmers have faced many difficulties because of the falling market prices. The most recent is the impact of the Covid-19 epidemic while this profession requires farmers to move the bee farm around.

In addition, this profession is also increasingly risky because it is possible to lose the bee farm when moving the farm to the flower area that has just been sprayed with toxic pesticides. Accordingly, many cases of bees have "lost their home, lost their land", many people who have been with the profession for many years after the recent difficulty do not have enough capital to keep farming.

At the Fruit Honor Week of Dong Nai province held in Long Khanh city in June 2022, many enterprises and establishments specializing in exporting honey products participated in introducing honey products and products from beekeeping to consumers in the province. According to some honey production and trading enterprises, the demand for honey in the domestic market is currently increasing rapidly. Some enterprises specializing in exporting honey are increasingly interested in investing in packaging and diversifying products to increase their market share in the domestic market.

Source: Binh Nguyen - nongnghiepviet.vn