Four pomelo planting areas in Ba Ria-Vung Tau licensed to export pomelo to US

Harvesting pomelos in Phu My township (Photo: VNA)

Ba Ria-Vung Tau (VNA) – Four pomelo planting areasin the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau have been granted planting areacodes, enabling them to export green-skin pomelo to the US.  

Theprovincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development named the four areasas the Kim Long organic pomelo farm in Chau Duc district, the Hoang Long pomelofarm, and two orchards owned by Truong Van Ut and Ho Hoang Kha, all in Phu Mytownship.

Those four areas have a total acreage of 68 hectares.

BaRia-Vung Tau is currently home to 1,163 hectares under pomelo with total outputestimated at 4,500 tonnes a year. Most concentrated pomelo cultivation areas arein Chau Duc district and Phu My township, with green-skin pomelo being the mainvariety.

Since the beginning of this year, the local agricultural sectorhas paid attention to encouraging and guiding farmers in following safe andorganic cultivation standards. As a result, the quality of pomelo grown in theprovince, from the fruit’s appearance to taste, has improved remarkably,meeting standards of markets with high requirements such as the US and theEuropean Union.

Inthe time ahead, the provincial authorities will continue to coordinate withlocal administrations to assess commercial pomelo planting areas. Those whichhave potential for fruit export will receive guidance to apply for plantingarea codes.

The province will also organize training for farmers in accessing planting areacodes and ensure human resources for setting up and managing planting areas andpackaging facilities in accordance with requirements.  

Photo: VNA

Ba Ria-Vung Tau is aiming to expand the areas of pomelo grantedplanting area codes across the province to boost export.

After over five years of negotiations, the US Department ofAgriculture has officially licensed the import of fresh pomelo fromVietnam earlier this year.

Pomelo is the seventh fresh fruit of Vietnam to belicensed to enter the US market, following mango, longan, lychee, dragon fruit,rambutan, and star apple.

The US is a potential market for Vietnamesefruit, as it has great demand for fruit, up to 12 million tonnes each year. Itsdomestic production has met just 70% of the demand while the remaining 30%,equivalent to 3.6 million tonnes, is imported.

To export pomelo to the US, the Plant Protection Department under the Ministryof Agriculture and Rural Development will work with relevant parties to carryout concerted measures, especially training farmers and exporting companies inthe US’s import requirements. It will also maintain the granting of productionunit codes and strictly monitor pest contamination in fruit./.

VNA