Fruit, vegetable exports grow strongly, exporters still worry

Dragon fruits for export (Source: VNA)

Hanoi (VNA)– Vietnam saw significant rise in exports of fruit and vegetable products inthe first half of 2017 but local exporters still cannot find themselves at easeover unstable supply and food safety issues.

According tostatistics by the General Department of Vietnam Customs, exports of fruit andvegetable products hit over 1.68 billion USD in the first six months of 2017, ayear-on-year increase of 41.4 percent.

The future of thefruit and vegetable industry looks every promising this year as the sectortargets to ship abroad 3 billion USD worth of the products for the entire year.

The country hasenjoyed impressive growths of fruit and vegetable exports in some foreignmarkets, including the UAE (93.6 percent), Hong Kong (China) (89 percent), andLaos (69 percent).

China remainedVietnam’s biggest buyer who imported 1.1 billion USD worth of fruit andvegetable products in the first five months of this year, up 50.5 percentyear-on-year and making up 75.5 percent of the total exports.

The United Stateswas far behind with 44.7 million USD, up 23.5 percent. It was closely followedby Japan with 43.3 million USD, up 56 percent.

Japan is emerging asa promising market though Vietnam’s fresh fruits and vegetables still struggledto satisfy its quarantine standards. Japan has allowed imports of some fruitswith seed from Vietnam, such mango and dragon fruit.

Meanwhile, Vietnamplans to export 104 million USD worth of fruits and vegetables to the US in2017, up 21 percent from 2016. However, the figure is believed to be below thereal potential of Vietnam as well as demand of the US market.

Besides fresh products,Vietnam produces juices together with frozen, canned and dried fruits to suitneeds of different markets. While the US market appears to like most of theproducts, the EU seems to prefer juices and frozen products.

In spite of thebright outlook, the fruit and vegetable producers face a bumpy ride due to unstableinput supply and prices. In reality, when China purchases a large volume of afruit, immediately making the price go up; then fruit processing factoriescannot collect enough materials for production throughout the year.

On the other hand,unstable prices also make it tough for the local exporters to fill orders fromforeign partners as the two sides will have to negotiate and sign contractsmonths before harvest season.

Lack of large-scalefarms has led to unsteady source of supply and low food safety standards,especially in frozen products which are more likely to have bacterial problems,a business from Tien Giang said.-VNA

VNA