Dragon fruits for export (Photo: VNA)Hanoi (VNA) – The fruit andvegetable sector aims to gross nearly 4.2 billion USD in export turnover thisyear, according to the Department of Crop Production under the Ministry ofAgriculture and Rural Development.
To realise the goal, the sector will expand thefruit area to one million hectare and develop five main fruits in southernlocalities namely dragon fruit, mango, durian, rambutan, and longan.
The department recommended localities minimisethe expansion of area under citrus fruit trees and shift to grow other highyield ones in areas where soil conditions are not suitable for those types oftrees.
In order to ensure food safety and origintracking of products for domestic sales and exports, the cultivation sector hascontinued guiding farmers to apply advanced standards in production such asVietnamese Good Agricultural Practice (VietGAP) and Global Good AgriculturalPractice (GlobalGAP).
It also seeks to boost processing and expandexport markets, gradually reducing dependence on the Chinese market for somefruits like dragon fruit, longan, and mango.
Farmers will be guided to increase the use ofnew high-quality and disease-free varieties.
In 2018, the country had 969,400 hectares offruit areas, up 48,000 hectares versus 2017.
The fruit-vegetable export turnover reached 3.8billion USD in the year, up 8.9 percent against 2017.
China was the biggest fruit-vegetable importerof Vietnam with over 73 percent of the market shares.-VNA
VNA
