Goods transported through Le Thanh international border gate between Gia Lai province (Vietnam) and Ratanakiri province (Cambodia) - Photo: VGP/HT
Customs accompanies, businesses speed up
In the Central Highlands – the capital of industrial crops such as coffee, pepper, cashew, rubber, agricultural exports are making a clear breakthrough. In particular, large exporting enterprises have been effectively taking advantage of the support from the Customs sector to increase output and expand markets.
A typical example is Dak Lak 2-9 Import-Export Company Limited (Simexco) - one of the largest coffee enterprises in the country. Currently, the company's total annual revenue is stable at around VND 15,000 billion. During the period from October 2023 to June 2025, despite many market fluctuations, the company still maintained its growth momentum.
One of the key factors that helped this enterprise accelerate is the title of AEO. Thanks to that, the entire process from customs clearance, declaration to declaration liquidation is done completely electronically, saving a significant amount of time, cost and human resources. It only takes about 5 minutes to complete a declaration, greatly reducing the pressure compared to the time when the VNACCS/VCIS system was not available.
Simexco representative shared that although there are still random checks, the process is quick and transparent. Thanks to that, the company's reputation with international partners is significantly enhanced.
In addition, recent inspection results from the Customs Department show that Simexco fully complies with tax, environmental and customs regulations. This is a solid foundation for the company to set a target of exporting 120,000 tons of coffee in 2025, reaching a turnover of about 17,000 billion VND, 10,000 tons higher than the original plan.
In particular, the company encourages farmers to grow coffee according to Rainforest Alliance standards (a set of sustainability requirements and criteria applied to agricultural and forestry products) by rewarding them with an additional VND100–300/kg for certified products. However, because the free market does not bind sellers, maintaining a stable source of raw materials remains a challenge.
Not stopping there, Simexco has proactively prepared for the EU's EUDR regulation, which will take effect from December 2025. This regulation requires transparency of origin and no deforestation in the growing area. The company has invested in building a 40,000-hectare raw material area, locating coordinates of each tree, creating maps and sharing data with European partners.
This is a long-term direction, because currently 45% of Vietnam's coffee exports go to the EU. The fact that the EU assesses Vietnam as a country with low risk in implementing the EUDR is a positive signal.
Mr. Ho Van Dung, Deputy Head of the Customs Branch of Region XIV, said: Dak Lak is a province with strengths in exporting agricultural and forestry products, especially durian and coffee. Working in the customs sector since the 90s, Mr. Dung said that before, he had to enter declarations into notebooks, check goods, calculate taxes manually... but now everything has been completely switched to electronic. Instead of having to queue, businesses can now complete procedures quickly and conveniently. With modernization, the customs agency is creating maximum conditions for exporting businesses to increase foreign currency revenue and complete annual export targets. Specifically, the synchronous implementation of the electronic customs system helps to significantly reduce customs clearance time, with some shipments only needing 3 seconds to complete procedures.
Need to remove bottlenecks for agricultural products to go far
However, the journey to bring Vietnamese agricultural products to the world has not been really "smooth sailing". One of the major bottlenecks is local plant quarantine regulations. At Le Thanh border gate, exports in the first 5 months of the year increased by 93% compared to the same period last year. At the same time, a series of shortcomings still exist: imported goods are mainly agricultural products with low taxes, weak infrastructure, lack of large FDI projects, lack of labor...
Mr. Cao Dang Que, Head of the Le Thanh International Border Gate Customs, said: Many enterprises only rent temporary processing warehouses because the infrastructure of the two border provinces of Ratanakiri and Stung Treng (Cambodia) is still underdeveloped. This is a major barrier that requires a comprehensive strategy to remove.
At border gates such as Bo Y (Kon Tum), Le Thanh (Gia Lai), thanks to the electronic Seal system, the National and ASEAN Portals, customs authorities have made efforts to significantly improve customs clearance speed; In the first 5 months of 2025, import-export turnover at Bo Y border gate reached more than 120 million USD, an increase of nearly 5%.
Mr. Ho Van Dung, Deputy Head of the Customs Branch of Region XIV, had a dialogue to resolve difficulties with businesses.
Speaking to the Government E-newspaper, Mr. Ho Van Dung, Deputy Head of the Regional Customs Branch XIV, said that some difficulties still exist related to specialized inspection procedures, such as durian quarantine. Currently, in many cases, goods must be brought to the northern border gate for quarantine, then returned to complete customs clearance procedures.
Currently, Dak Lak does not have a permanent quarantine unit, causing difficulties for shipments that need to be inspected before export.
"Right from the first batch of durian exported to China, we proposed that there should be an on-site quarantine force, focusing on quarantine at the point of departure. Avoid risks during transportation, loss of control of the growing area, affecting the agricultural brand of the Central Highlands. Moreover, coffee, durian, dragon fruit and many other agricultural products all need quarantine. If this step is slow, the whole chain will be affected," Mr. Dung emphasized.
The Regional Customs Department of XIV did not wait for a conference to listen to businesses. All problems were resolved promptly, even over the phone, with direct support from customs officers.
Dak Lak Customs regularly reports on the situation and coordinates with the agricultural, environmental, and industrial and trade sectors to maintain the quality and brand of Tay Nguyen durian. However, the representative of the department also said that to create more favorable conditions for businesses, stable policies are needed to be updated, effective coordination between agencies, and can be implemented with low compliance costs.
Currently, the Central Highlands region has more than 400 import-export enterprises regularly carrying out procedures in the area. In addition to administrative reform, the department also regularly organizes periodic dialogues, specifically answering each question of enterprises, from post-clearance inspection, tax value, to type code declaration.
At the conference to review the work of the first 6 months of 2025, the Customs Department (Ministry of Finance) said: From the beginning of the year to June 15, 2025, the total import-export turnover of the whole country reached nearly 391 billion USD, an increase of 15.3% over the same period. In particular, exports reached 197.88 billion USD, imports reached 193.03 billion USD, helping the trade balance to have a surplus of 4.84 billion USD. Also during this period, the total state budget revenue from customs reached 201,414 billion VND, equal to 49% of the year's estimate.
Emphasizing the goals to be achieved, at this Conference, Deputy Minister of Finance Bui Van Khang requested the entire sector to strive to complete the targets set for 2025 - the final year of the 2020-2025 period. The Customs sector is assigned to perform two tasks in parallel: facilitating businesses, and at the same time collecting the correct and sufficient amount of tax, without leaving any tax arrears. This is the key to maintaining growth momentum, helping Vietnamese agricultural products continue to conquer the global market.
Mr. Minh
Source: https://baochinhphu.vn/hai-quan-dong-hanh-gop-phan-giup-xuat-khau-nong-san-but-toc-102250628215545641.htm
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