Harvesting durians in the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak. (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) – The Vietnam Vegetable and Fruit Association(VINAFRUIT) estimated that Vietnam’s fruit and vegetable exports will top 5.5 - 5.6 billion USD, which is a new record, in 2023.
In November, exports reached nearly 375.48million USD, marking a reduction of 38.4% compared to the previous month but anincrease of 22.5% compared to the same period last year.
In the first 11 months of this year, Vietnamposted 5.2 billion USD in fruit and vegetable exports, surging 70% year onyear.
China remains the biggest importer ofVietnam's fruits and vegetables, buying 66% of the totalexported fruits and vegetables of Vietnam. Other major importers were the US,the Republic of Korea (RoK), and Japan.
Meanwhile, in November, Vietnam spent nearly153.7 million USD to import fruits and vegetables, which marked amonth-over-month decrease of 5.6% and a year-over-year decrease of 0.7%.
In the first 11 months of this year, Vietnam’simports reached 1.77 billion USD, dropping 5.8% year on year.
VINAFRUIT General Secretary Dang Phuc Nguyensaid that in the last two months, fruit and vegetable exports tended todecrease because Vietnam's durian season had ended. The association forecasts that durian export value in 2023 canreach 2.3 billion USD.
Meanwhile, dragon fruit exports are expectedto grow well from now until the Lunar New Year celebration when demand for thefruit in the Chinese market will increase. Moreover, as China's domestic dragonfruit production will also decrease due to reduced output in winter, China'sdemand for imported dragon fruit will increase.
However, after a period of suffering losses, dragon fruit farmers had switched to growing other crops, resulting inreduced output this year, Nguyen said.
Deputy Minister of Agriculture and RuralDevelopment Phung Duc Tien said that Vietnam and China will soon sign protocolson exports of coconut products, frozen fruit, and watermelons, which areexpected to help further boost the export of agricultural products this year.
Tien asked businesses, localities, andindustry associations to pay special attention to issues of the quality of growing areas, traceability, planting area codes, and packaging facilities toensure that Vietnam strictly complies with signed protocols./.
