Saravan hopes for growth in export value
Saravan hopes for growth in export value
Saravan province expects that exports of agricultural produce to Ubon-Ratchathani province in Thailand will increase in value many times over if the province has a quarantine laboratory and international border checkpoint.
The province exported more than 70 billion kip in agricultural goods in fiscal year 2012-13, according to a report from the Saravan provincial Industry and Commerce Department yesterday.
The 70 billion kip was split between exports worth over 36 billion kip (US$4.5 million) to Ubon-Ratchathani and the rest which went to Vietnam.
Last year the province imported about 11.84 billion kip (US$1.48 million) of goods from Ubon-Ratchathani so the province has made a considerable contribution towards the country's balance of payments.
“Currently most of our agricultural produce exports have to go for checking and analysis at a quarantine laboratory in Champassak province to certify their quality and safety,” said the Saravan provincial Industry and Commerce Department Chief, Mr Sisouphanh Thepvongsa.
“It takes three days for these procedures, two days for the transportation and one day for the analysis,” Mr Sisouphanh said yesterday.
“The delay incurs more cost for the business operator before the transaction can be completed.”
“At present most of Saravan exports to Ubon-Ratchathani have to pass through the international border checkpoint in Champassak because Saravan has neither an international border checkpoint nor a lab,” Mr Sisouphanh said.
“It would take an investment of more than 300 million kip to construct a lab and millions more to cover the human resources necessary to operate it,” he said.
He said that some of Saravan's exports pass through other provincial borders in keeping with customer requirements.
Export items to Ubon-Ratchathani are mainly agricultural produce such as dried cassava and dried maize.
So far Saravan has made more than 10 contract farming agreements with Ubon-Ratchathani and these agreements have led to the business operators in Saravan getting more business partners and more trade cooperation with Thai businesspeople.
The department reported that the value of Saravan's exports in fiscal year 2013-14 will be more than the 220 billion kip planned for, to both Thailand and Vietnam.
In the first nine months of the fiscal year the export value reached over 194 billion kip which was 88.38 percent of what was planned, the report noted.
The province expects that it will export enough in the final three months of the year to comfortably exceed the plan.
On the import side, the province had expected the figure to reach about 183 billion kip but in the nine months they had imported just over 99 billion kip, which was 54.46 percent of plan.
The imported products are from both T hailand and Vietnam, including food and drink, electric equipment, machinery, construction materials and fuel. The province imported only 37 billion kip of goods in the last fiscal year.
vientiane times
