Businesses face hurdles in exporting to Latin America market

Along with obstacles faced in terms of geographical distance, a lack of direct transport routes, language differences, and a dearth of information about business opportunities, transporting goods is considered the biggest challenge for Vietnamese enterprises when making inroads into the market.

Do Thi Dao, a logistics consultant, said the country’s export volume of goods to the Latin American market remains modest as carriers do not prioritise loading Vietnamese goods onto ships and planes.

Furthermore, local firms have faced a serious shortage of empty containers for shipping their agro-fishery products, which make up the majority of export items to the market.

Most notably, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused severe congestion of containers to occur at ports in both the United States and the EU, thereby leading to high logistics costs and late delivery time for foreign partners.

Dao therefore advised Vietnamese exporters to become more proactive in their delivery and backup plans, whilst also working alongside professional carriers in advance as a means of avoiding any financial losses and fines.

She also recommended that businesses flexibly select other transportation methods as opposed to relying on traditional maritime routes to ship their goods to the market.

Logistics experts also made a proposal to transport goods to the US first, before subsequently crossing the border to import into Mexico, a move which could potentially save costs and reduce shipping time for between 15 days and 20 days compared to shipping goods directly to Mexico.

Nguyen Cam Trang, deputy director of the Import-Export Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, also advised local businesses to take full advantage of the incentives from free trade agreements (FTAs) that the country signed with countries in the Latin American region to ramp up exports moving forward.