CRI听力:Vietnam's Agricultural Exports to China See Steady Growth

Pingxiang City in South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region borders with Vietnam and is home to many companies trading Vietnamese agricultural products.

Chen Kangli manages a company in Pingxiang that mainly engages in trade of Vietnamese fruits.
She says Vietnamese fruits can supplement China's domestic supplies, thanks to seasonal variations.

"For example, watermelons in China hit the market in June and July. Now is not the season for watermelons. But Vietnamese watermelons have just come in. And also Pitaya can be found all the year around. Moreover, Vietnamese fruits are relatively larger and taste great."

In addition to companies capitalizing on their geographical advantages, many Chinese supermarkets have also recognized the value of Vietnamese agricultural products.

Many of these stores directly purchase products from Vietnam.

For example, Shou Hang Supermarket, which has 43 stores in Beijing, began directly purchasing agricultural products from Vietnam three years ago.

Liu Zhengping, purchasing manager at Shou Hang Supermarket, says direct procurement from Vietnam has brought them huge economic returns:

"We import fruits directly from Vietnam. The fruits mainly include pitaya, longan, litchi and mango. Their sales are very impressive. Around 5,000 kilograms of Pitaya are sold every day in our stores."

Liu Zhengping and his team are now in Vietnam, trying to introduce more types of local fruits to his market.

China and Vietnam signed a cooperative memorandum for agricultural trade in 2013, and bilateral trade in the sector has seen rapid growth.

Besides fruits, produce from Vietnam such as rice, cassava and coffee are also common on the market in China.

Do Tien Sam, former head of China Studies Institute at Vietnam's Academy of Social Sciences, says the variety of Vietnamese agricultural products can meet the huge demand from the Chinese market.

He also indicates that there're much more cooperative potentials to tap into.

"Chinese leaders have said for many times that favorable conditions will be created for Vietnamese agricultural products to expand in China. We need to further study Chinese consumers' taste so as to plant products that can meet their needs and then introduce those products to China."

Latest stats show that China imported 2.11 billion US dollars worth of agricultural products from Vietnam between this January and September, up 23 percent year-on-year.

During the same period, China's exports of agricultural products to Vietnam have increased 15 percent, topping 2.4 billion US dollars.

For CRI, I'm Niu Honglin.