Every day Vietnam spends more than 52 billion VND on pesticides.
According to the latest statistics of the General Department of Customs, by the end of March 2018, Vietnam spent more than 208 million USD to import pesticides and pesticide ingredients. Although this figure has decreased compared to the same period, this item still has a high import rate. Notably, more than 50% of the import value is from China.
Preliminary calculations show that on average, Vietnam has to spend more than 52 billion VND/day to import pesticides and plant protection products into the country, of which more than 50% (about 26 billion VND) is spent on importing products from China.
Although compared to the same period last year, the average import value of pesticides from China decreased by 3 billion VND/month, the high import value of this sensitive item makes many people worried.
Furthermore, customs statistics mainly show the official import figures of enterprises, while the amount of pesticides imported through unofficial channels between the two countries is very large.
Regarding the cost of producing pesticides and insecticides, at the Conference on the development of agricultural and rural products held at the end of 2017, agricultural experts warned of the situation of importing foreign pesticide and insecticide raw materials to Vietnam, labeling them and selling them on the market.
More dangerously, the prices of plant protection drugs of microbial origin, safe for the environment and public health in the country, cannot compete with those imported from China due to subsidy policies and counterfeiting of labels and packaging from abroad.
By the end of 2017, according to customs reports, Vietnam spent more than 978 million USD to import pesticides and raw materials, of which products originating from China accounted for more than 50%, estimated at about 524 million USD.
According to statistics from the Plant Protection Department (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development), Vietnam currently has about 1,700 active ingredients of plant protection drugs with 4,080 commercial products.
In fact, for many years, in addition to pesticides, Vietnam's agricultural sector has also imported large amounts of fertilizer from abroad. By the end of March 2018, Vietnam had spent more than 262 million USD to import more than 940,000 tons of fertilizer. The amount of fertilizer originating from China accounted for 309,000 tons, reaching more than 78 million USD.
Previously, in 2017, Vietnam had to import more than 4.6 million tons of various fertilizers, worth 1.2 billion USD, of which 1.8 million tons were from China, worth more than 450 million USD.
