With Tet approaching, companies that export traditional New Year goodies to the Vietnamese diaspora abroad are working hard to ensure the goods go ontime.

Nguyen Xuan Huy, director of Ngoc Ngan Agricultural Processing Joint Stock Company based in southern Tien Giang province, said all his employees had to work until very late at night to complete an order of more than 100 tonnes of fruits from an Italian importer.

At Long Uyen One Member Co Ltd in My Tho Industrial Park, workers are hastily collecting, processing, and packaging chilli, ginger, and dragon fruit for export to the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, and Singapore.

Nguyen Ngoc Nam, director of Tien Giang Food Company, said his company shipped 4,000 tonnes of special rice under the Nine Dragons and Viet Flavour brands, glutinous rice, and 200 tonnes of banh trang (girdle cake) to several countries in the last two months.

“Despite the economic downturn, the demand for Tet specialties, including banh tet (cylindrical glutinous rice cake) and mut (preserved fruit) has not shrunk and even increased,” Quach Hung Tong, general director of Hai Minh Production and Trading Company in HCM City’s Cu Chi district, said.

Besides familiar items as banh tet , banh chung (square glutinous rice cake) and banh it (glutinous rice cake), Phat Trien Dong Thap Co Ltd has this year started to export xoi gac (glutinous rice steamed with momordica fruit) to the EU.

Hoang Ny, director of Thanh Tam Bonsai Art Center, said her firm exported three consignments of apricot trees to Asian countries for display during Tet./.