Hanoi (VNA) – Logistics services aredriving up added values of the domestic agriculture sector which has beendeveloping quickly over the past years with an annual growth rate of 14-16%.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade(MoIT), apart from seaports and airports, Vietnam is home to 10 inland portsand 18 inland container depots (ICDs), which serve as logistics centres, mainlyin big cities and border localities like Hai Phong, Hanoi, Quang Ninh, Lao Cai,Ho Chi Minh City, Dong Nai and Binh Duong.

In addition, cold supply chains have beenestablished to facilitate the transport and storage of agricultural materials.

Thanks to such logistics services, more than 130million tonnes of agricultural products are transported and circulated eachyear. Of which, tens of millions of tonnes are shipped to more than 185countries and territories worldwide.

Over the past years, Vietnam’s agro-forestry-aquaticproduct exports have increased constantly, hitting a record of over 53 billionUSD last year from 48.6 billion USD in 2021. The value is projected to reach 55billion USD this year.

Nguyen Nam Phuong Thao, Sales Director of Hoang PhatFruit Co., Ltd, said after the COVID-19 pandemic, importers and exporters havefound it easier to access logistics services with dropping transport costs.

However, Nguyen Tu Uyen, General Director of CMULogistics Transportation Services Co., pointed out weaknesses in the domesticlogistics sector like a lack of cold storage facilities and limited capacity oflogistics staff given the increasing volume of Vietnamese imports and exports.

A study by the World Bank (WB) showed that logisticscosts in Vietnam account for nearly 21% of Vietnam’s GDP, higher than mostof countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which affectsthe competitiveness of exports and adds to the costs of goods for producers andconsumers.

Tran Thanh Hai, Deputy Director of the MoIT’s ForeignTrade Agency, said the number of logistics firms in Vietnam remains limited, witha lack of experience and a small scale in terms of both capital and workforce.

Notably, domestic logistics firms have yet to form fourth-partylogistics, also known as 4PL, an operational model in which a businessoutsources its entire supply chain management and logistics to one externalservice provider, due to their lax linkage.

Therefore, importers and exporters are under thepressure of fee hikes, and Vietnamese goods are losing their competitiveness.Meanwhile, logistics providers are struggling to reach the internationalmarket, experts said./.