Nambodia: a colony for dumping Vietnamese exports?

Cambodia ripe for more exports

July, 02 2012
VNS

HCM CITY — Cambodia offers plenty of opportunities for Vietnamese exporters although there is intense competition from countries such as Thailand and China, delegates said at a conference in HCM City last Thursday. 

Le Quoc Phong, general director of the Binh Dien Fertiliser Group, said the Cambodian market had been familiar with fertilisers imported from Thailand and China. Therefore, the company faced difficulties in the initial step of penetrating the market.

Vietnamese goods attain many advantages upon entering Cambodian market [... thanks to Uncle Hoon Xhen]

Monday ,May 10,2010
Saigon Giai Phong (Vietcong communist party)

Firms said Vietnamese goods would likely dominate Cambodia’s market if the country offers them favorable policies about taxes and fees, issues laws to protect them, and helps them maintain updated information concerning evolving markets.

Vietnamese goods exported to Cambodia managed to remain at a growth of 30 percent a year, while the country’s overall export market suffered a decrease. The conference on border trade cooperation and development between Vietnam and Cambodia, held recently, mainly discussed how to maintain the two-way trade growth between the two countries with a focus on strengthening that partnership over the next ten years.
Potential hard to exploit

According to Vu Huy Hoang, minister of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Cambodia is an important and potential market for Vietnamese goods as the two countries share a border of 1,137 kilometers that goes through 10 Vietnamese provinces and 9 in Cambodia. There are 10 pairs of international border gates, 12 pairs of main border gates, and 25 secondary gates along the border. In addition, there are many trails, which facilitate trade between the two countries.

Vietnam and Cambodia share several similarities in terms of local customs and consumer demand, which benefits Vietnamese firms in the exportation of goods. Many Vietnamese consumer goods groups, including cosmetics, instant noodles, plastic products, and fertilizers account up to 50 percent of market share in Cambodia. Meanwhile, Vietnam mainly imports materials for manufacturing.

Vietnam has great structural advantages in the exportation of goods to Cambodia. However, as for now, the neighboring country is merely a potential market.

According to Tran Huu Duc, foreign relations director of Nutifood, through goods fairs and mass media, the percentage of Cambodian people, who know about Nutifood’s dairy products, has recently risen. However, as the applied tariffs for dairy products have risen to 35 percent, Vietnamese firms primarily sell products into Cambodian markets by unofficial cross-border trade, taxed at just 10 percent.

On the other hand, the cost spent to sell Vietnamese products in the supermarket system is rather high, creating an unsolvable puzzle for Vietnamese firms.

Sharing the same opinion, Lai Quoc Doan from plastic company Dai Dong Tien, added that Vietnamese goods have an important position in Cambodia, especially plastics. Nevertheless, many firms remained hesitant because of complicated administrative procedures, unclear customs clearance, and high tariffs. Besides the import tariff of 7 percent, and value added tax of 10 percent, firms have to pay an import fee of US$120 per time. This combined with a customs declaration fee of US$200 per container, makes the exportation rate too high for a batch of goods valued between US$16,000-US$18,000.

Pham Le Huynh Mai, representing the instant noodles company Colusa-Miliket, said exporting a batch of goods to France by sea costs only $85, while to Cambodia by road costs them up to $95. High cost has increased the price of a case of instant noodles by at least VND20,000.

Change advantage into reality

The Ministry of Industry and Trade expected that revenues gained from trade with Cambodia possibly reached $2 billion this year, and would rise to $7 billion by 2015.

Cambodian trade minister said statistical figures hadn’t reported exactly the actual turnover between the two countries, as unofficial cross-border trade was much higher.

Firms said Vietnamese goods would likely dominate Cambodia’s market if the country offers them favorable policies about taxes and fees, issues laws to protect them, and helps them maintain updated information concerning evolving markets.

By Thuy Hai – Translated by Vinh Nghi

Ministry bans skin-whitening product

Tuesday, 13 April 2010
Khuon Leakhana and Mom Kunthear
The Phnom Penh Post

THE Health Ministry has banned the import and sale of a Vietnamese skin-whitening cream that caused the death of a 23-year-old woman in Banteay Meanchey province last month, officials said Monday.

A cream identified as part of a line of products from Vietnamese brand Kem Lot Lanh Thom Cao Cap was responsible for the death of Chhuon Sovann in early March, and the product’s labelling does not include a complete list of ingredients, according to a Health Ministry statement released late last week.

Heng Bun Keat, director of the Ministry’s Food and Drug Department, said Monday that customers will be warned and the product removed from shops. “The Health Ministry requires all provincial health departments to broadcast widely through the media,” he said. “They also have to collect this product from beauty centres.”

Yim Yann, president of the Pharmacists’ Association of Cambodia, praised the move Monday, saying that the Health Ministry has not monitored the import and sale of dangerous beauty products closely enough in the past.

“If importing this kind of whitening cream was illegal, no one would have died,” he said. He added that legitimate products can also be dangerous if the directions are not followed.

Heng Bun Keat said the ministry will begin a nationwide campaign at the start of next month to monitor the quality of imported beauty products sold in salons and markets.

“Officials from the Food and Drug Department have already started collating the number of beauty salons in the city to see how many exist and how many of them have a licence, in order to make it easier to manage,” he said.

[Viet's] An Giang to tap Cambodian vegetable market

April, 05 2010
VNS (Hanoi)

AN GIANG — The Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta province of An Giang should better exploit its great potential to export vegetables to Cambodia, experts advise.

As Cambodia can meet only 60 per cent of the vegetable demand for its residents, it is having to import vegetables from Viet Nam and Thailand, they say.

Vegetable exports to Cambodia have surged from 5 – 7 tonnes per day in 2007 to 70 – 80 tonnes per day in 2010.

Lim Sokun, secretary of state for foreign affairs of Cambodia's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, said wholesale turnover between Viet Nam's An Giang Province and Cambodia's Kampot Province had soared from US$40 million in 2007 to $60 million in 2008.

In An Giang, vegetables at the Long Binh wholesale market, sourced from various other provinces, are mostly exported to the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh.

Everyday, about 50 – 70 tonnes of fresh vegetables and fruits from Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta provinces and Da Lat City are exported to Cambodia.

The Long Binh Market in An Giang Province's An Phu District appears to be Cambodia's biggest agricultural product market. But the district only meets 10 per cent of export demand, so traders have to source vegetables from other wholesale markets in HCM City and Da Lat.

Local authorities have announced plans to cultivate 635ha of high-quality farm produce in order to expand vegetable exports to Cambodia.

Each Cambodian trader typically buys one or two tonnes of vegetables and takes them to markets in Phnom Penh.

Since An Phu District does not have a wide variety of products, traders get them from wholesale markets in Chau Doc, Chau Phu and Cho Moi Districts.

For some products like potato, carrot and cauliflower, traders use wholesale markets in HCM City, which gets them from Da Lat.

Nguyen Van Kiet, a farmer in Thanh Phu Hamlet, Khanh An District, said that he was no longer afraid that vegetables would become unmarketable or have their prices fall, like rice.

"We plan to increase the land area for cultivating farm produce in three hamlets, An Khanh, An Hoa and Khanh Hoa," said Duong Van Hoa, chairman the People's Committee of Khanh An District.

At present, only 40 per cent of agricultural land in Khanh An District is used to produce vegetables.

Meanwhile, An Phu Commune officials have announced plans to cultivate organic vegetables for export on an area of 1,370ha, with a total investment of VND22.7 billion ($1.1 million).

Viets stealing market share from Siems

Vietnamese products sell well in Cambodia

03/18/2010
VOV News (Hanoi)

A representative of the Department for Trade Promotion says market share for Vietnamese products in Cambodia increased sharply in the first quarter of 2010.

Tran Van Thi made the statement at a conference on ways to penetrate the Cambodian market held in Ho Chi Minh City on March 18.

Over the past 3 years, the popularity of Vietnamese goods in Cambodia has grown by 40 percent. Aquatic products, steel and processed agricultural products have consistently accounted for 67-80 percent of the market.

By the end of last year, Vietnam had invested in 63 projects in Cambodia with a total registered capital of nearly US$900 million.

Cambodia is now one of the 3 countries drawing the highest level of Vietnamese overseas investment capital. Trade revenue between the two countries is expected to reach US$2 billion by the end of this year.

[Vietnamese] Skin cream linked to bride's death

Body of the victim on the bed. The inset shows a picture of the victim while she was still alive (Photo: DAP news)

9/03/2010
Bangkok Post

Health officials backed up by paramilitary troops are searching people entering Thailand from Cambodia for a Vietnamese-made skin whitening cream believed to contain dangerous chemicals.

A Cambodian bride-to-be died on Sunday in Sa Kaeo Crown Prince Hospital two days after being transferred unconscious and in a critical condition from a Poipet hospital.

Sovann Chuan, 23, the daughter of a senior police officer in Poipet in Cambodia's Banteay Meanchey province, had used Bao Dam brand skin whitening cream and developed blood infections.

Bao Dam products have previously been banned from Thailand for reputedly containing high levels of hazardous mercury. Food and Drug Administration officials are testing the woman's blood and the cream for traces of mercury.

Everyone entering Thailand from Cambodia through the Ban Khlong Luek border checkpoint in Sa Kaeo's Aranyaprathet district is being thoroughly checked for Bao Dam products.

The Aranyaprathet Immigration office has been alerted to the problem and was cooperating in the screening for fear the cream could be smuggled in to sell at shops in Rong Kluea market.

Public Health Minister Jurin Laksanavisit said doctors advised Ms Chuan had died of a blood infection.

Ms Chuan bought the Bao Dam cream in a Poipet market and had rubbed it all over her body to whiten her skin in preparation for her wedding, her father Pol Capt Samuan Chuan said.

She developed severe allergic symptoms including peeling skin and chest discomfort and finally lost consciousness.

Pol Capt Chuan said he believed the cream caused his daughter's death as it contained mercury.

The FDA said tests were still being carried out as to the exact cause of Ms Chuan's death and it had yet to be proven the Bao Dam cream was the cause until the results of an autopsy are finalised.

Several other factors could have been involved, it said.

The provincial health office yesterday searched 42 cosmetics shops at Rong Kluea market for the Bao Dam cream.

Deputy health chief Yutthaphong Srimongkhon said vendors had taken the skin product off their shelves after learning from media reports about the death of the Cambodian woman. They had also removed other cosmetic products from Vietnam, Dr Yutthaphong said.

Bao Dam products had previously been tested and found to contain mercury and banned from sale in Thailand, the FDA said.

Trade with Vietnam fell by nearly 19pc in 2009

Shoppers pass in front of Vina Mart, a store selling Vietnamese-produced goods on Monivong Boulevard, Phnom Penh, Tuesday. Imports from Cambodia's neighbour fell more than 19 percent last year. (Photo by: Uy Nousereimony)

Wednesday, 03 February 2010
May Kunmakara
The Phnom Penh Post

Regional downturn

• Trade with Vietnam falls 19.7pc in 2009
• Bigger slump with Thailand saw 22.15pc fall last year

Despite a small recovery in volumes during the final quarter, bilateral trade suffered due to the global crisis, body reports

If we still have a problem with Thailand, Vietnam will have more of a chance to win market share."

FALLOUT from the global economic crisis is to blame for an 18.7 percent slump in bilateral trade between the Kingdom and Vietnam, the Cambodian Chamber of Commerce (CCC) said Tuesday.

Official figures from the Vietnam Embassy in Phnom Penh, released to the Post on Tuesday, showed that trade between the neighbours dropped to US$1.332 billion in 2009, from $1.640 billion in 2008.

Cambodia’s main exports of unprocessed agricultural products plummeted 15.5 percent, to $186 million from $220 million.

Vietnam’s exports of garment and construction materials, homemade goods and processed foods were down more than 19 percent, to $1.146 billion from $1.420 billion in 2008, the figures showed.

Nguon Meng Tech, director general of the CCC, said the decline in bilateral trade was due to the global economic crisis hurting consumption.
“We recognise that ... the global crisis impacts people’s demand,” he said.

Lee Bien Cuong, commercial counsellor at the Vietnam Embassy, explained that the impact of the financial crisis was “severely felt” in the export of goods to supply the Kingdom’s garment and real-estate sectors, both of which were hit hard by the international downturn.

Vietnamese exports of garment materials tumbled by more than 10 percent and exports of construction materials dropped about 6 percent.

But Lee Bien Cuong said he remained hopeful that a recovery is due after trade levels began to recover from October. In December bilateral trade hit $160 million.

“If the figures remain positive, I believe that we will reach our plan of ... $2 billion in bilateral trade by the end of this year,” he said.

Nguon Meng Tech added that the ongoing diplomatic dispute between Thailand and Cambodia over former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra may, in future, help boost Vietnam’s business presence in Cambodia.

“If [Cambodians] still have a problem with Thailand, Vietnam will have more of a chance to win market share in our country,” he said, adding that the effects of the dispute had not been felt in trade as yet because international borders have remained open.

Bilateral trade between Cambodia and Thailand declined an annualised 22.15 percent in 2009 to $1.658 billion from $2.130 billion, according to figures from the Thai Embassy’s Foreign Trade Promotion Office (FTPO) in Phnom Penh.

Cambodia’s exports to Thailand declined 13.84 percent to $77.73 million from $90.22 million in 2008, while imports from Thailand fell 22.52 percent to $1.58 billion from $2.04 billion over the same period.

Sok Sopheak, director general of the International Trade Department, could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

“It’s a surprise that Cambodian people like Vietnamese goods these days”: Thuyen, a Viet merchant at Vinamart mall in Nom Benh

A woman carries a large load of goods from Vietnam to Cambodia via the Tinh Bien Border Gate.

Vietnamese businesses gain traction in Cambodia

Saturday, October 3, 2009
Thanh Nien News (Hanoi)

Thai and Chinese enterprises lose Cambodian market shares to Vietnamese investors.

Le Hong Thuyen is home from Cambodia looking for new suppliers for her shopping mall in Phnom Penh.

The mall, named Vinamart, is the Cambodian capital city’s number-one outlet for Vietnamese products. When it opened in 2006, Vinamart only sold a limited product range supplied by 16 Vietnamese producers. But the outlet has grown larger, and now offers a vast array of both Vietnamese and Cambodian goods.

“It’s a surprise that Cambodian people like Vietnamese goods these days,” said Thuyen. “They especially like Vietnamese food products... they’ve gotten to know and trust Vietnamese brands.”

Lay Vannak, deputy major of Takeo Province, which borders Vietnam’s An Giang Province in the Mekong Delta, said Vietnamese products had expanded their market shares in Cambodia and “some products have defeated those from Thailand and China.”

He said Vietnamese businesses have improved their competitiveness in terms of both quality and packaging.

Launch-pad

An Giang Province has a long border with Cambodia and accounted for 70 percent of bilateral trade between the two countries. Vietnam exported US$1.7 billion goods to Cambodia last year, an annual growth rate of 40-45 percent.

In August, the province officially opened the Tinh Bien Economic Border Gate Zone, where Cambodians, Vietnamese and international tourists can access duty free goods at the border.

Nguyen Minh Tri, head of the province’s Economic Border Gate Authorities, said the zone and its ten supermarkets were a strategic foundation upon which Vietnamese goods could penetrate the Cambodian market.

He also said the zone acted as a depot from which exports were launched to other markets around the globe.

Ho Chi Minh City’s Industry and Trade Service said it was difficult for Vietnamese businesses to store their products in Cambodia and it would be hard for them to boost their exports to the market where local production was underdeveloped.

Vu Kim Hanh, chairwoman of the Vietnamese High Quality Goods Club, said its members planned to build a warehouse at Tinh Bien as part of their export strategy to Cambodia.

Room for improvement

Local businesses were offering strong products at competitive prices in Cambodia, but their distribution and promotion networks remain weak, according to a survey conducted in September by the Business Support Assistance (BSA) in association with Vietnamese research firm Truong Doan.

The survey of consumers and retailers in Phnom Penh and Battambong cities showed that high-quality Vietnamese goods were recognized in Cambodia but that Vietnamese products in general were attached to less competitive labeling and promotions than those from Thailand, said Truong Cung Nghia, director of Truong Doan.

Nghia said Vietnamese businesses were strong in stationaries, bicycles and two and four-wheel accessories, footwear and garments, building materials, fertilizers, seeds, home appliances and plastic products.

Consumer and retailer satisfaction with high-quality Vietnamese goods was higher than with those from Thailand and China, said the survey, which added that retailers profited more from trading Vietnamese goods.

But still, Vietnamese businesses lacked the intense promotional campaigns of their Thai counterparts, which offered free products, cost cutting and television commercials.

In need

“We need the support of Vietnamese producers in terms of a distribution strategy,” said Thuyen from Vinamart.

Thuyen said her shopping mall dealt in Vietnamese products and she was finding it difficult to train Cambodian staff as well, due to the language barrier.

Local producers should understand the difficulties and give a hand to traders like her in the new market, she said

Vietnamese product prices were also less competitive than Thai rivals, which enjoyed lower import taxes in Cambodia and had the strategic support of the Thai government, said the BSA.

The firm said the Vietnamese government should increase dialogues on the issue with its Cambodian counterparts to help Vietnamese businesses like the Thais had done.

Reported by Minh Quang

Cambodia favours Vietnamese goods

One of the popular Vietnamese by-products in Cambodia

04/05/2009
VOV News (Hanoi)

A recent survey by Cambodia’s largest daily newspaper, Rasmei Kampuchea, shows that Vietnamese goods are especially favoured in the Cambodian market.

The survey was conducted among senior officials of the Cambodian Ministry of Commerce and the country’s consumers during a Vietnamese products fair in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh.

According to the Cambodian Ministry of Commerce, Vietnam took the lead with US$988 million worth of products consumed in Cambodia in 2008, surpassing China ($784 million) and Thailand ($674 million).

Vietnam exports a wide range of commodities to Cambodia, such as medicine, cosmetics, textiles and garments, electronics, mechanical products, processed food, fruit and vegetables.

This is the second year that Vietnam has topped the list of countries producing goods consumed in Cambodia.

Cambodian economic experts predict that with its geographical advantage, Vietnam will be able to maintain its leading position if it continues to diversify its products and improve its designs.

150 Vietnamese enterprises to attend High Quality Products Fair in Cambodia

09/05/2008
VOV News (Hanoi)

As many as 150 Vietnamese enterprises will participate in a high-quality Vietnamese Products fair to be held at Mondial Centre, Phnom Penh, Cambodia on September 18-22.

The information was unveiled at a working session on September 4 between Vice chairwoman of the HCM City People’s Committee Nguyen Thi Hong and the municipal Investment and Trade Promotion Centre (ITPC).

The fair is part of cooperation programmes between the two countries and between HCM City and Phnom Penh, aimed at promoting Vietnamese products in Cambodia.

During the fair, the largest of its kind in Cambodia, a series of activities will take place, including cultural exchanges, exhibitions on Vietnamese goods in the Vietgood representative office in Phnom Penh, market research in Cambodia and northeastern Thailand, plus workshops between the two business circles.