Fruit, vegetable exports down 9.9 percent in Jan-Feb

Hanoi (VNA) – The export turnover of fruits and vegetables fell 9.9 percent year-on-year to 584 million USD in the first two months of 2019, according to the department of agro-product processing and market development under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

The reduction was attributed to fluctuations of the fruit and vegetable market in February due to the prolonged Lunar New Year (Tet holiday).

China ranked first in importing fruits and vegetables from Vietnam in January 2019 with 72.6 percent of the market share.

Strong growth was also seen in the Republic of Korea (up 68.2 percent), the Netherlands (up 60.2 percent), Australia (up 54.8 percent) and the United Arab Emirates (up 36.8 percent).

Notably, in February 2019, the US allowed the imports of fresh mangoes from Vietnam. This is the sixth fruit exported to the market, after dragon fruit, langon, rambutan, “thieu” lychee and star apple.

Last year, the US was one of the markets with the most impressive growth of 37 percent compared to 2017. It is forecast that Vietnam’s fruit exports to the US will continue seeing high growth thanks to the export of mangoes.

Vietnam is able to ship around 3,000 tonnes of fresh mangoes to the US, equivalent to nearly one percent of the US’s mango imports.

The fruit and vegetable sector aims to gross nearly 4.2 billion USD in export turnover in 2019.

In 2018, Vietnam exported 3.8 billion USD worth of fruits and vegetables, an annual rise of 8.9 percent.-VNA