Carrot exports

The workshop drew valuable feedback and ideas to remove the logistics challenges facing the Mekong Delta’s agricultural sector

At the “Logistics leverage for the Mekong Delta agri-products” workshop held last week in the Mekong Delta province of Hau Giang, local officials, businesses and experts have shared their thoughts about removing logistics barriers to improve the Mekong Delta’s agri-product exports.

The Mekong Delta is a key economic region, accounting for around 90 per cent of the country’s rice exports, 65 per cent of the country’s seafood production as well as 70 per cent of the country’s fruit exports. The Mekong Delta exports tens of millions of tonnes of goods each year. However, there is a lack of seaports in the region, especially deep-water ports that can handle export containers. This, coupled with overloaded ports in Ho Chi Minh City, leads to increased service fees, storage fees, and waiting times.

According to Le Tien Chau, Secretary of the Hau Giang Provincial Party Committee, the Mekong Delta lacks key logistics centers. Therefore, goods are transported through various locations before reaching Ho Chi Minh City for export. Meanwhile, the transport system in the Mekong Delta has yet to fully develop to meet the demand.

“These shortcomings – including logistics costs – constrained agri-products in the Mekong Delta. Specifically, the Mekong Delta has the highest logistics costs accounting for 30 per cent of product costs. The unreasonably high costs make the Mekong Delta’s agri-products less competitive than those of Thailand and China,” he said.

Nguyen Thanh Binh, chairman of the Vietnam Fruit and Vegetables Association said that logistics rely greatly on infrastructure. However, there is still a lack of logistics facilities in raw material producing areas like the Mekong Delta, making it difficult for farmers to process crop in a timely manner. Due to high logistics costs, businesses cannot afford to invest in factories and warehouses to raise the competitiveness of local agri-products.

Pham Tien Hoai, general director of Hanh Nguyen Logistics introducing the all-in-one logistics centre in Hau Giang

To address the challenge, an all-in-one logistics centre for all agricultural export procedures has been put into operation in Hau Giang province, which will help optimise logistics costs and  improve the competitiveness of regional agriculture in the international markets.

Pham Tien Hoai, general director of Hanh Nguyen Logistics, the investor of the project said that the centre will address the challenges of farmers, producers (traders and businesses), and exporters. The centre is a gathering place for hundreds of traders buying agri-products from farmers. In particular, it is possible to store agri-products after harvest for up to 90 days instead of just the usual seven days.

“Thanks to the centre, farmers will no longer face the price pressure while freeing them up to find markets for their products. Farmers can also receive fair profits for their efforts and investments without facing the situation of agri-product rescue,” he said.

In addition, the center boasts a storage warehouse with a capacity of 150,000 tonnes as well as a workshop for sorting, packaging, and irradiation. Therefore, agricultural processing and export businesses do not need to invest tens of billions of dong to access modern processing and packaging facilities for their agri-products. The centre also features hundreds of booths for product demonstration so that businesses can do business with foreign importers. It means that foreign importers do not need to travel across the Mekong Delta to seek agri-products to import. They just need to visit the centre to find the best products.

Le Tien Chau, Secretary of Hau Giang Party Committee said that the local authorities highly appreciate the model and supported the firm in gaining access to bank capital and land fund. To support logistics development in the coming time, Hau Giang will invest VND18 trillion ($781 million) to develop transport infrastructure to improve regional connectivity. Hopefully, Vietnam’s agri-products will be able to compete with other countries’ agri-products.

A corner of Da Nang city (Photo: VNA)

Da Nang (VNS/VNA) – The People’s Committee of central Dang Nang city and the Import-Export Pan Pacific Group (IPPG) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the development of an international and regional finance centre to attract investors in the future.

Director of the city’s Investment Promotion Agency (IPA), Huynh Thi Lien Phuong said the MoU, which was signed late last month, aimed to build a trading centre, casino, high-end entertainment and luxury apartments in the coastal area.

She said the project would be built on an area of 84,000.sq.m on the beach-front on Vo Nguyen Giap and Vo Van Kiet streets in the Son Tra peninsula.

Phuong said Da Nang authorities would auction land-use rights for the finance-trade-casino complex in the future.

She said the city was drawing up a detailed plan for the first international duty-free zone and smart urban area for investors.

Last year, five key investors – the Import-Export Pan Pacific Group (IPPG), T&T Group, New Techco company from Vietnam, and Sakae Holding and another company from Singapore – registered for a land-use rights auction for a 2 billion USD finance-trade-casino complex in the central city.

Jonathan Hanh Nguyen, who is chairman of IPPG Group, urged the city to build an international standard duty-free zone and recreational area for tourists.

The city’s Department of Natural Resources and Environment said four plots on two coastal facade Vo Van Kiet and Vo Nguyen Giap streets were reserved for finance-trade-casino complex development.

Two years ago, IPPG failed to negotiate with Trung Nam Group to make the Golden Hills area the first duty-free zone and factory outlet centre in central Vietnam.

Last month the first downtown free-duty shop, VV Mall was launched at the beach-front Crowne Plaza Da Nang resort in Ngu Hanh Son district.

The Universal Alloy Corporation (UAC) from the US has launched the first aerospace parts project, while LG Electronics began construction of its R&D centre in the city.

Da Nang, which is situated at the end of the East-West Economic Corridor, linking Laos, Thailand, Myanmar and Vietnam, is planned as a global destination of tourism, finance, logistics and hi-tech investment./.