Dong Thap: Export enterprises strive to adapt

Export activities of enterprises in Dong Thap province in the first months of the year have had both advantages and disadvantages. Despite many difficulties, enterprises still try to maintain the market and seek adaptive solutions.

OVERCOME DIFFICULTIES

Go Dang Joint Stock Company (GODACO) is one of the leading seafood exporting enterprises in Dong Thap province. According to Mr. Nguyen Van Dao, General Director of Go Dang Joint Stock Company, in the first 6 months of the year, the seafood export situation of our country has grown, ranging from 16% - 20% depending on the industry.

Key markets such as China, the United States, Europe, the Middle East, etc. all have growth. For GODACO alone, the growth rate in the first 6 months of the year reached about 25%.

Besides the difficulties, favorable factors still account for the majority. The demand for food consumption, especially seafood, is very large. The quality of Vietnamese seafood is also favored by other countries. This has led to good growth in aquaculture, processing and export of seafood.

Production and business activities of Go Dang Joint Stock Company maintain good growth.

Mr. Nguyen Van Dao added: “Currently, the US government uses tax policy to create a trade balance with other countries. This policy changes constantly, depending on the US negotiations with other countries. This is causing more psychological impact than reality.

Up to now, businesses have only received information, there has been no official announcement on how much the US will impose on Vietnamese goods. If the US imposes a 20% reciprocal tax on Vietnamese goods, the difference compared to other countries in the Southeast Asian region will only be 1%. This is a number that businesses think they do not need to worry about.

If the US imposes a 20% tax, the competitiveness of our seafood products in the US market will be acceptable. Businesses are waiting to see how things develop. Currently, the sales speed to the US is still good and has not been affected.

According to the Provincial People's Committee, geopolitical conflicts in the Middle East, Europe and trade tensions between major powers continue to negatively affect the global supply chain and international trade environment.

Notably, the US announcement to apply reciprocal taxes to partners will strongly impact import and export activities in Dong Thap province - where the US is a large export market, accounting for 18.2% of total turnover.

In addition, the increasing trend of trade protection and technical barriers (TBT, SPS), along with tightening food safety standards and traceability in many countries, has significantly affected agricultural and aquatic product exports.

In particular, the Chinese market is applying Decrees 248 and 249 to food import enterprises, making access to this market difficult. In the first 6 months of the year, fruit and vegetable exports decreased due to many countries strengthening quality control.

Dong Thap's durian export turnover to China only accounted for 4.76% of total fruit and vegetable exports in the first 6 months of 2025, a sharp decrease compared to 42.98% in the same period in 2024.

Some industries that used to be growth drivers such as steel and textiles are also facing difficulties due to countries changing their trade defense measures, applying forms such as anti-dumping and anti-subsidy taxes... In particular, the textile and garment export processing industry is affected by the new US tax, causing partners to worry and postpone orders...

Quang Minh Cooperative (Trung An Ward, Dong Thap Province) specializes in producing and trading handicrafts for export. Mr. Cao Dung Khanh, Director of Quang Minh Cooperative, said that the cooperative's operations were favorable before the US implemented the reciprocal tax policy. However, in recent months, the cooperative has encountered many difficulties; because 100% of the cooperative's products are exported, of which 90% are to the US market.

In May and June, the US imposed a 46% tax on Vietnamese goods, but then postponed it for 3 months. At that time, the partner asked the cooperative to cooperate to bear this tax. Customers requested to reduce the selling price of the product to a minimum of 20% to support them with selling costs. At that time, the cooperative negotiated continuously with the customer, and finally had to reduce the price by 10%.

Mr. Cao Dung Khanh added: “The more the cooperative reduces prices, the more difficult it is; because on average, the cooperative only makes a profit of about 10% per product. At that time, the amount of goods exported to the US was very low, about 50%. This July, the cooperative only exported about 30% - 40% of its goods to the US.”

According to the People's Committee of Dong Thap province, export activities in the first 7 months of 2025 maintained a stable growth rate. The province's goods exploited traditional markets well and expanded to seek and develop many new markets. Exports to many markets achieved high growth rates, especially markets with which Vietnam has signed FTAs. Processing industry groups, which account for a large proportion of total export turnover, still face many difficulties from the world market and production costs.

In the first 7 months of 2025, exports reached 5.23 billion USD, up 2.8% over the same period and reaching 56.9% of the yearly plan. Rice exports continued to be a bright spot, increasing sharply in both volume (up 81.6%) and value (up 47.7%). Aquaculture showed signs of a slight recovery in value (up 1.5%) despite a slight decrease in output.

Fruits and vegetables continue to face difficulties due to falling market demand and high competitive pressure, causing a sharp decrease in turnover (over 25%).

Some items that maintained growth momentum were plastic products (up 18.1%); base metals (up 5.4%); fibers, textile yarns of all kinds and confectionery, shrimp crackers. However, many key export items continued to decline sharply such as: Garments (down 21.4%), footwear (down 8.8%), iron and steel (down 15.8%), handbags (down 6.4%) due to the impact of input costs, declining orders from major markets and price competition.

PROACTIVE ADAPTATION

According to many enterprises, export activities in the coming time are forecast to face difficulties, especially from the reciprocal tax challenge of the US. Therefore, enterprises are proactively seeking adaptive solutions to maintain production and business activities.

Vina XO Company Limited (Dong Son Commune, Dong Thap Province) is a company specializing in processing fruits such as mango, jackfruit, dragon fruit for export to demanding markets. On average, each month, the company exports about 70 - 80 tons of dried fruit to countries, including the US market.

Mr. Nguyen Anh Khoa, Director of Vina XO Company Limited, said that with the news that the US will impose a 20% tax on Vietnamese export goods, businesses are forced to adapt by reducing production costs.

Because 90% of its exports go to the US market, Quang Minh Cooperative is facing difficulties as the US implements a reciprocal tax policy.

For Quang Minh Cooperative, although facing many difficulties due to the impact of the US's reciprocal tax policy, the unit is also making efforts to maintain production and export activities.

Mr. Cao Dung Khanh said: “Recently, the US tax rate on Vietnamese goods is basically about 20%, although not official yet, this is a good sign. Export prices have decreased, but at a relatively high level. However, the cooperative is no longer profitable.

However, there are items that the cooperative must produce to support its workforce of more than 4,000 people. The cooperative must try to maintain its exports to the US market.

According to Mr. Nguyen Van Dao, the US is the second largest seafood export market of Vietnam. The demand for seafood in this market is very large. Therefore, businesses have confidence to continue selling to this market.

However, businesses must come up with the worst-case scenario, which is the possibility that the US will impose even higher tariffs. In addition to the Government taking the initiative to continue negotiations, businesses must also have defenses. Specifically, businesses must diversify their markets and seek new markets.

At the same time, it is necessary to diversify products by producing many different items with higher added value. Enterprises themselves also need to transform, boldly apply advanced technology to production, apply digital transformation to reduce product costs, and increase product competitiveness. With this defense, enterprises think that any difficulty can be overcome.

Identifying that business activities, especially exports, will become an important driving force in socio-economic development and growth promotion, Dong Thap is focusing on grasping the situation to support and accompany businesses. According to the Provincial People's Committee, in the last months of the year, the province will continue to grasp and promptly resolve difficulties and problems of businesses.

At the same time, organize trade promotion programs to potential domestic and foreign markets such as: Organizing for enterprises to participate in fairs, exhibitions, networking conferences... domestically and internationally; continue to support domestic enterprises to boost agricultural and aquatic product exports; support FDI enterprises with export orders...

ANH THU

Source: https://baoapbac.vn/kinh-te/202508/dong-thap-doanh-nghiep-xuat-khau-no-luc-thich-ung-1048404/