The price of poultry eggs in HCM City markets has risen significantly, with salted duck eggs now costing VND5,000 (US$0.24) each, compared to VND3,500 earlier. 

Furthermore, traders are finding it difficult to purchase enough eggs despite offering higher prices, reports the Sai Gon Tiep Thi newspaper.

According to Ba Huan and Vinh Thanh Dat companies, two biggest egg suppliers for HCM City, the quantity of eggs they have been able to buy from the Mekong Delta has decreased by 30-40 percent recently. 

Some businesses in Vinh Long province and Can Tho city have collected large quantities of fresh eggs to make salted duck eggs for export to China. 

The Animal Health Centre in the region, which issues quarantine certificates, also affirmed that the export of salted duck eggs to China by enterprises in Vinh Long and Can Tho provinces has increased remarkably in recent times.

Ba Huan, director of Ba Huan Company, said with the Autumn Festival drawing near, both in China and Vietnam, there is a huge demand for salted duck eggs – an important ingredient in the moon cake that is a festival specialty.

She also said many Chinese businesses have come to Vietnam to buy poultry eggs and pigs, weighing between 80-120 kilos each, pushing pork prices up in the domestic market.

Two other commodities whose prices have risen as a result of increased exports of coconuts and sugar to China. 

Coconut prices have risen from VND110,000 per dozen earlier this year to VND165,000. 

On account of a big difference in sugar prices between Vietnam and China , many businesses are buying sugar and transporting them to the border gate for export to China . 

Nguyen Thanh Long, Chairman of the Vietnam Sugar Cane and Sugar Association, said a kilo of sugar is sold at about VND30,000 in China , VND10,000-12,000 higher than in Vietnam.

Some sugar factories in the northern and central region are selling a large volume of sugar to traders who then export it to China via border trade, he said.

He also said the association will petition the Ministry of Industry and Trade to allow sugar imports when local prices hit VND20,000 a kilo.