China lacks goods, spends nearly 30 million USD to buy Vietnamese areca nuts

(Dan Tri) - In 9 months, China spent nearly 30 million USD importing Vietnamese areca nuts. In September alone, the value of areca nuts exported to this country skyrocketed by 621%.

On October 29, the Vietnam Fruit and Vegetable Association cited the latest statistics from the General Department of Customs, saying that in the past 9 months, Vietnam's areca nut exports reached 28.99 million USD (over 730 billion VND). Of which, the Chinese market alone accounted for 27.34 million USD (nearly 700 billion VND), an increase of 12.66 million USD over the same period last year. In September, China spent 7.5 million USD importing this fruit from Vietnam, down 16.7% compared to August but up 621% over the same period last year. Previously, in 2023, Vietnam exported 5.13 million USD worth of this fruit to China. In addition to China, Vietnam also exported areca nuts to about 10 other markets such as the US with a value of nearly 1 million USD in 9 months, Thailand with 258,000 USD, Nepal with 141,000 USD, India with 88,000 USD, Sri Lanka with 64,000 USD, Singapore with 53,000 USD... Explaining the reason, Mr. Dang Phuc Nguyen, General Secretary of the Vietnam Fruit and Vegetable Association, said that China massively bought areca nuts from Vietnam because the supply of this item on Hainan Island - where 90-99% of the country's areca nut output is in short supply due to storms. In fact, according to Dan Tri reporters, since the beginning of the areca nut season (August every year), the price of this item has continuously increased due to increased demand for the Chinese areca nut market. The record price is up to 120,000 VND/kg. Many growers said that selling more than a ton of areca nuts can buy a tael of gold.

In recent years, the area of ​​areca cultivation on Hainan Island has decreased sharply (Photo: Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences).

While farmers were happy because areca nut prices were high right at the peak harvest time, traders announced that they would stop buying, causing confusion among many garden owners. On October 27, the price of the commodity in many localities dropped to only 45,000-50,000 VND/kg, and some types even dropped to 30,000-35,000 VND/kg. The recent plunge in areca nut prices is mainly related to the demand of processing plants. Many processing companies in China are under financial pressure due to the continuous increase in prices of this commodity. Accordingly, some areca nut processing plants in China have applied "price limits". For example, a processing company in Hunan province announced that the purchase price of areca nut must not exceed 32 yuan/catty (114,000 VND/0.6kg). This price limit has forced some areca nut farmers in China to lower their selling prices. According to the Hainan Province Price Monitoring Center (China), on October 18, the average purchase price of this fruit in the locality increased to 44.27 yuan/jin (equivalent to more than 155,000 VND/0.5 kg), an increase of more than 175% compared to the same period last year. However, by October 25, the purchase price had dropped to 33.75 yuan/jin (equivalent to more than 120,000 VND/0.5 kg).

Dantri.vn

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/kinh-doanh/trung-quoc-thieu-hang-chi-gan-30-trieu-usd-gom-mua-cau-viet-nam-20241029185421374.htm