STORAGE AND LOGISTICS WOES FOR AGRI BUSINESS

Vietnam is focusing at increasing its international trade, it’s time to fix the glitches in the logistics system and bring it at par with international standards

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While Vietnam has recently started exporting agricultural products to international markets, the country is struggling to win new customers and is unable to compete with products from other countries in terms of quality and price due to drawbacks of the existing logistics system. During the first 8 months of 2019, the total export turnover of agricultural, forest and seafood products reached more than $26 billion, marking a year-on-year increase of 1.6 per cent. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) revealed that eight groups of products reached export value of at least $1 billion: coffee, rubber, rice, vegetables, shrimp, pangasius, wood and wood products. Exports of coffee, rubber and rice were at least $2 billion. During the review period, Vietnam had spent over $20.5 billion, down 1.2 per cent year-onyear, to import products in these groups, meaning the country had an agricultural trade surplus of around $6 bil