Blocked Chinese border gate, fault line in Mekong Delta: Need for change soon
It is necessary to establish processing centers, cold storage, and goods preservation in areas along the border corridor; at the same time, a systematic logistics chain must be soon formed.
Lang Son has goods congestion, Mekong Delta provinces have supply disruption
As soon as China tightens import and export controls to prevent the Covid-19 pandemic, Vietnamese goods will immediately be congested at important border gates such as Lang Son and Quang Ninh. Thousands of trucks from provinces/cities across the country are stuck, making businesses "restless".
Looking at this story more broadly, Mr. Nguyen Quoc Toan - Director of the Department of Processing and Market Development of Agricultural Products, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, said that the blockage of 4,000 containers in Lang Son raises the issue of establishing processing centers, cold storage, and goods preservation in the area along the border corridor. This is very necessary while neither Lang Son nor Quang Ninh have them.
According to the representative of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, if cold storage facilities are established, it is necessary to connect the transport infrastructure to reduce logistics costs. A container cannot go from Binh Thuan to Mong Cai, the value of agricultural products will be lost along the way.
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| Container trucks lined up for more than 3km at Bac Luan 2 Border Gate, Quang Ninh (Photo: Pham Cong). |
Meanwhile, Quang Ninh has a deep-water port in Hai Ha. Thus, goods from the South to the North do not have to go by waterway to minimize transportation costs, and cannot just go by road to the border gate. At the same time, large agricultural areas such as the Mekong Delta can make the most of the canal system and waterway network.
After the pandemic, goods were stuck at the border gate, but during the pandemic, the supply chain in the Mekong Delta was broken. Vice Chairman of An Giang Province - Mr. Tran Anh Thu informed that the break was most obvious in the period from June to September 2021, the Mekong Delta could not consume agricultural products, agricultural product prices fell. On the contrary, people in Ho Chi Minh City could not access agricultural products, vegetable and fruit prices increased dramatically, and the supermarket system could not meet the demand.
Regarding the retail system, Mr. Nguyen Anh Duc, General Director of Saigon Co.op, analyzed that there are two types of fractures.The first, broken in each locality. Goods cannot be transported from one locality to another. Not only from Ho Chi Minh City to the Mekong Delta and vice versa, but also goods cannot be transported between neighboring provinces/cities.
Monday, disruptions in the product supply chain related to the contribution of certain stages. For example, at times when An Giang rice was in surplus, production units did not have packaging to pack the rice.
The congestion at the border gate will lead to local price fluctuations of agricultural products in the localities in the coming time. At this time, macro-level control is needed.
Deep processing and clear logistics strategy
Director Nguyen Quoc Toan affirmed that at this time, we cannot stand still and complain about difficulties. The characteristic of a tropical country is that it has everything. There is a mango in Dong Thap, there is also a mango in Son La. Vietnam has diverse products, but how to classify them, which products are used for processing or which products reach the end of the consumer's table in a standard way, at the end of the value chain.
He said that the Ministry of Planning and Investment and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development have included in the Draft Resolution a specific mechanism for Can Tho City on establishing a logistics, processing and preservation cluster of the Mekong Delta region in this locality, submitted to the National Assembly Standing Committee. If approved, this will be a specific institution for logistics, agricultural products and processing.
Chairman of Dong Thap Province People's Committee - Mr. Pham Thien Nghia - shared the view that the Mekong Delta needs cold storage to store goods and an integrated center for production, logistics, distribution in the region, including exporting goods. This region has all the conditions for seaports, processing industry, and human resources.
