China’s strict measures to keep the coronavirus out of its borders. That strict policy has however also had alarming consequences well beyond China. Southeast Asian fruit farmers are especially vulnerable because so much of the region's exports are directed toward the country.
In 2020, the total fruit exports from Southeast Asia to China stood at roughly USD 6 billion. Long lines of trucks arriving from Vietnam, Myanmar, and Laos are now backed up on China's border crossings. Dragon fruit farmers in Vietnam, who export mostly to China, have been pushed heavily into debt, according to New York Times. In Myanmar, watermelon exporters are dumping their fruit on the border because truck drivers have been told to quarantine for 15 days before they can bring the goods into China.
The restrictions appear to have especially hurt Vietnam's dragon fruit farmers. After nine cities in China said they had detected the coronavirus on dragon fruit imported from Vietnam, the authorities shut down supermarkets selling the fruit, forced at least 1,000 people who had come into contact with the fruit to quarantine, and ordered customers to be tested.
Source: aninews.in
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