Flexible measures to facilitate the export of fresh fruit

From May 2023 up to now, localities throughout the country have entered the harvest season of all kinds of fruits, especially fruits on the list of official exports to China. Therefore, the number of trucks carrying fresh fruit for export through the provincial border gates has increased sharply. To ensure the quality of exported fruits, relevant sectors and forces have implemented flexible measures to support and create the most favorable conditions for the export of fresh fruits through provincial border gates.

Officer of the Plant Quarantine Station of Huu Nghi International Border Gate checks the origin stamp of the exported durian shipment

According to the report of the Management Board of the Dong Dang – Lang Son Border Gate Economic Zone (Management Board), at this time, on average, about 350-400 trucks of fresh fruits of all kinds go to the border gates of the province every day (mainly Huu Nghi International Border Gate and Tan Thanh Border Gate). In order to ensure that all trucks carrying fresh fruit can be customs cleared within the day, the functional forces at the border gate have been implementing synchronous measures.

Priority is given to trucks carrying fresh fruits for export

From May 23, 2023 to the end of June 18, 2023, there were 412 shipments of fresh durian exported through Huu Nghi International Border Gate (IBG) and Tan Thanh Border Gate with a total export volume of more than 30 thousand tons. The special thing is that although according to regulations, durian is required to be exported through Huu Nghi IBG, but since May 25, 2023, with the flexibility of all levels and sectors of the province, it has been exported through Tan Thanh Border Gate (on average, 55-65 trucks are exported daily).

Mr. Dinh Trung Kien, Deputy Director of the Center for Border Gate Management, said: “Due to the great number of durian trucks coming to Huu Nghi IBG, there is time that this number is more than 400 trucks per day, it leads to a congestion at this border gate area. In order to reduce pressure on Huu Nghi IBG, the leaders of the Management Board and related sectors of the province quickly discussed directly with the functional forces of Guangxi (China), and then agreed to allow the durian to be exported through Tan Thanh Border Gate. This not only helps to quickly solve the traffic congestion at Huu Nghi IBG, but also helps to increase the number of durian trucks passing through these two border gates with in the day (there was time there were over 200 trucks carrying durian were cleared per day).”

In addition to durian, at this time, all Vietnamese fruits are allowed to be officially exported to the Chinese market (lychee, longan, watermelon, dragon fruit, rambutan, banana, jackfruit, mango, mangosteen, durian, passion fruit) are also included in the list of “green channel” goods by the Customs Branch at the border gates of the province, thereby helping to shorten the time for customs clearance.

Mr. Phung Van Ba, Deputy Director of Tan Thanh Customs Branch said: “Within last month (from May 16 to June 16), in order to promote the export of fresh lychee through the area, implementing the direction of the General Department of Customs and the Provincial Customs Department, the Tan Thanh Border Gate Customs Branch has include fresh lychee on the list of priority goods on “green channel”, which means no physical inspection of goods will be carried out with this type of goods (only declaration documents after customs clearance will be checked), therefore, it takes less than 1 minute to clear a shipment of fresh fruit.

Along with the customs force, the border guards at the border gates also actively monitor vehicles in and out of the border gate area, especially in coordination with the businesses operating in warehouse service at the border gates to arrange separate parking lots and separate export channel to ensure fast clearance and avoid congestion at the border gates.

It is known that currently, the forces at the border gates are implementing the “3 – 1” option, that is, exporting 3 trucks carrying fruit comes before exporting 1 truck of other goods. At the same time, under the direction of leaders of the Provincial People’s Committee, the forces at Huu Nghi International Border Gate and Tan Thanh Border Gate have increased their staff to work at noon, and extended the working time to 22-23 hours. Thereby, it helps to improve customs clearance efficiency, especially helping to increase the number of trucks carrying fresh fruit that can be customs cleared within the day.

Custom force at Tan Thanh Border Gate inspects trucks carrying lychee for export

Creating the most favorable condition in the related procedures

According to statistics of the Management Board, at this time, the number of trucks carrying fresh fruits exported through the province’s border gates accounts for 80% of the total number of export items, most of them are dragon fruit, lychee, durian…

Sharing this issue, Mr. Tran Van Hieu, Deputy Director of the Plant Quarantine Sub-Department of Region 7 Lang Son said: “The time from mid-June to the end of July 2023 is the peak time when provinces and cities in the whole country harvest main fruits for export. Specifically, there are 8/11 kinds of fruits that have entered harvest season such as durian, lychee, dragon fruit, jackfruit, banana, watermelon, longan… Therefore, quarantine stations at the border gates have also developed a plan to both ensure the quality control of exported fruits and quick and concise procedures, shortening the inspection time to promote export fruit shipments. Accordingly, the stations have now developed a plan to check the probability of 30%/lot/enterprise (if 1 business has 10 fruit trucks, only 3 of them are checked), this contributes to reducing reduce time for businesses in carrying out related procedures.”

Not only the inspection rate at the Vietnamese side is reduced, in order to ensure the convenience for Vietnam’s fruit export businesses, with the agreement from the competent forces of the Vietnamese side, now the Chinese side has agreed to reduce the quarantine rate to 10% for each shipment of durian and passion fruit. This helps to reduce the time for completing procedures, promoting customs clearance back and forth between the two border gates.

Mrs. Cao Hoai Phuong, Director of the Customs Branch of Huu Nghi IBG said: “The leaders of the branch have directed the professional customs team to only carry out the inspection through the electronic declaration system and to only ask for the certificate of plant quarantine agency for customs clearance procedures. The time for customs clearance of a truck through Huu Nghi international border gate at this time is less than 2 minutes.”

Mr. Nguyen Huu Vuong, Deputy Director of Lang Son Customs Department said: “Currently, the customs branches at the border gates have directed professional teams to carry out physical inspection only when detecting signs of violation, thereby helping to reduce procedures and shorten the time for customs clearance of fruit goods. At the same time, 5 customs branches at border gates are allowed to clear goods at this time, focusing all their efforts on applying reasonable solutions to promptly support enterprises exporting all kinds of fresh fruit. In particular, priority is given to trucks carrying Vietnamese fresh fruit to be exported through border gates.”

Mr. Lieu Anh Minh, Deputy Director of the Department of Industry and Trade, said: “Recently, the People’s Committees of 31 provinces and cities with large specialty fruit growing areas have sent a written request to Lang Son province to support and create favorable conditions for their fruits to be exported through provincial border gates. Following the direction of the Provincial People’s Committee, the Department of Industry and Trade has coordinated with the Management Board to regularly exchange with the functional forces of Guangxi (China) to agree on extending the customs clearance time, working on weekends and holidays. Thereby, currently, Huu Nghi International Border Gate and Tan Thanh Border Gate have operated both Saturday and Sunday, and extended the working time to 22 hours daily (Hanoi time). Along with that, in order to facilitate a favorable fruit export to the Chinese market, the department has directed the professional divisions to receive and carry out procedures for issuance of certificates of origin (C/O) even on Saturday and the department advised the Provincial People’s Committee to send a written request to the Ministry of Industry and Trade to open the C/O issuance system even on Sunday; hence, when the system is open, the department will also work on Sundays.”

With the flexible implementation of measures at this time, the provincial departments, agencies and forces are reaching with the goal of helping faster custom clearance of fresh fruit trucks for export, thereby creating the most favorable condition for businesses exporting fresh fruit through the area.