Up to 400-500 fruit-carrying trucks loaded with watermelons, dragon fruit, bananas and mangoes have arrived at the border gate each day; while China has allowed only around 250 trucks per day because of storage issues, leading to a 5 to 6-kilometre tailback at the border gate area.
Senior Lieutenant Colonel Nong Quang Tam, head of Tan Thanh border post, said officials from China and Vietnam have agreed to keep the border gates open till 9 pm to help accelerate the process, reduce congestion and the waiting time of the drivers and fruit owners; but the situation has not improved much.
Kim Dung who specialises in trading fruits to China said that most Vietnamese traders collected goods and then transported them to China by themselves. In many cases, they faced prize squeezes from Chinese partners.
Many people who tried to wait for higher prices often have to queue for weeks to be able to sell their products. Sometimes, they had to sell the goods at a loss.
Meanwhile, Chinese food safety watchdogs have stepped up inspections of Vietnamese produce in the lead-up to the Lunar New Year, further slowing customs clearance.
Director of Lang Son Province’s Department of Industry and Trade Vu Hong Thuy said that poor weather northern mountainous areas including Tan Thanh border gate affected transportation and the Chinese side’s ability to receive the goods.
Traders have been advised to pay attention to the weather conditions before transporting their products to the border gate.
Local customs officers have guided some trucks to the nearby Cong Trang border gate to ease traffic congestion. However, as infrastructure around the border gate is poor, customs clearance has remained slow as well.
Source: Vietnam Net