Portal expected to reach large lychee consumers An online portal has been launched to help farmers in pandemic-hit Bac Giang province sell their lychees. “Thank God, it’s so effective,” vice director of Bac Giang Enterprise Consulting and Assistance Centre (BECA) Duong Thanh Son said about the portal launched by the centre. Bac Giang has been hit hardest by COVID-19 during its fourth wave in Vietnam, causing difficulties for local farmers. The portal www.hotrotieuthuvaithieubacgiang.com was launched about three weeks ago and a Facebook page hotrotieuthuvaithieubacgiang was created just a few days later when Bac Giang started entering the lychee harvest season. Consumers can register to buy a large volume of lychees – a minimum of a tonne – after inputting basic information like name, e-mail, phone number, address and amount of lychee. Son, who specialises in information technology and communication, said that the portal looked simple but behind it were automatic customer management and customer care programmes that help with online sales. The portal and the Facebook page have reached hundreds of thousands of users, Son said, adding that he has received positive feedback on social media. “We connect Bac Giang lychee farmers and co-operatives with buyers. We pledge that our consumers can buy high-quality lychee at very good prices,” Son said. “If we had thought of the portal earlier and prepared for it about three months ago when lychee was still green, we could have reached more consumers,” Son said. He said the idea for the portal came up when Bac Giang farmers entered lychee harvest time but the province was struggling to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. This year, the province has about 28,100 ha of lychee with an estimated production of 180,000 tonnes. The COVID-19 outbreaks caused difficulties for harvesting, transporting, selling and exporting the fruit. Together with the Government, provincial authorities, organisations and …
Mekong deltas
VIETNAM BUSINESS NEWS JUNE 12
Economic growth to slow down in Q2, but production keeps rising The country’s economic growth in the second quarter of the year is expected to be lower than expected. However, the economy will also continue recovering strongly, with processing and manufacturing, and the service sector serving as key drivers of growth. At a recent government cabinet meeting, the Ministry of Planning and Investment said that based on positive performance of the economy in the first five months of 2021, it is projected the nation's economic growth rate will be about 5.8%. This will be lower than the target of 7.11% set in Government Resolution No.01/NQ-CP, released on January 1, on the key tasks for the implementation of the socioeconomic development plan and state budget estimates for 2021 (see box). The driving force of Vietnam's economic growth this year will be the industrial-construction sector and the service sector, especially processing and manufacturing, the MPI said. According to the General Statistics Office (GSO), in May, the resurgence of the COVID-19 pandemic has caused disruptions in supply chains and trade, as well as transport activities in a number of localities who are home to big industrial production like Bac Giang, Bac Ninh, and Ho Chi Minh City. However, in the first five months, trade and transport activities still increased as compared to the same period last year. Specifically, the total retail and service consumption revenue of the entire economy expanded 7.6% to more than VND2 quadrillion US$86.96 billion, and total import turnover of goods went up by 33.5%, while passenger transportation rose 4.2%, and goods transportation climbed 10.5%. Global analysts FocusEconomics (based in Spain) said that Vietnam's economy recorded solid growth in the first quarter of 2021. GDP growth clocked in at 4.5% year-on-year in the first three months of this year, matching the growth rate from the last quarter of 2020. As such, while the first …
VIETNAM BUSINESS NEWS JUNE 13
Tra fish exports expected to continue recovering The Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) forecasts that Vietnam's tra fish (pangasius) exports will continue to grow in the coming months thanks to the control of the COVID-19 pandemic in importing countries, said VASEP Secretary Truong Dinh Hoe. According to VASEP, after having COVID-19 vaccines, the economic and trade activities of many countries have started to recover, so the countries have also increased imports of seafood from Vietnam, especially tra fish products. Việt Nam’s total export value of pangasius in the first five months of 2021 reached 600 million USD, an increase of 10 percent compared to the same period in 2020. The large export markets of Vietnamese pangasius in this period were China, US, Brazil and Thailand. Of which, the tra fish export value reached about 27 million USD to Brazil and 26 million USD to Thailand, a year-on-year increase of 38.7 percent and 8.5 percent, respectively. "The export growth to Thailand, the largest pangasius importer in ASEAN, is a good signal to increase the pangasius export value to this region in the next quarter," said Hoe. In addition, the US market also increased imports of Vietnamese pangasius from the beginning of 2021, according to the association. In May, Vietnma’s tra fish export value to the US increased by 120 percent over the same period last year, reaching more than 35 million USD. Since the end of 2020, the inventory of pangasius in the US has been limited. Meanwhile, the domestic catfish production has also declined. Therefore, the US has increased imports of frozen tra fish products from the beginning of this year. The total value of pangasius exports to Hong Kong in the first five months reached 146 million USD, accounting for nearly 24 percent of Vietnam's total pangasius export value. This market returned to the list of largest pangasius export markets for Vietnamese tra fish products, VASEP …