Data from the Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development shows that Vietnamese fruit export to China reached a value of 300 million USD in the first quarter of 2020. This decline of 29.4% in comparison with the same period last year was the result of the outbreak of COVID-19. According to a report on vnexpress.net, the outbreak of COVID-19 initially interrupted Sino-Vietnamese trade because China did not have enough personnel to process all the shipping containers at the border. Containers full of dragon fruit, watermelons, bananas, and durian piled up at the border.

Sino-Vietnamese trade has already largely recovered, but market demand is not strong. China is the largest export market for Vietnam. 27.8% of all the agricultural, forest, and sea products Vietnam exported last year was destined for the Chinese market. That export volume was worth 8.5 billion USD.

Vietnamese export to other markets, such as Thailand and Indonesia, greatly expanded in the beginning of this year. However, the overall export volume still declined by 10.9% in the first quarter of this year. Vietnamese import also dropped by nearly 30%. The import volume was worth 294 million USD. The value of Vietnamese import from China, Australia, and Thailand declined by more than 10% each.

Source: freshplaza.com – 17^th April 2020 (originally from ifreshfair.com)

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