Hanoi (VNA) – The first batch of late-ripening longan of Hanoi’s Hoai Duc district is scheduled to reach Melbourne city, Australia, on September 6, the municipal Department of Agriculture and Rural Development said.

Longan is the fourth type of fruit, together with litchi, mango and dragon fruits, licensed to be imported into Australia.

Nguyen Xuan Dai, deputy director of the department, said late-ripening longan had been mostly sold to the Hanoi market. However, the fruit has been exported to foreign countries like Malaysia, the US and Poland.

The capital city has instructed departments and agencies to promote late-ripening longan in both domestic and foreign markets, including demanding ones like Australia, through trade promotion programmes.

In 2018, Hanoi had 18,796 hectares of orchard, of which the area of longan ranked third, with an output of 18,000 tonnes.

Phung Thi Thu Huong, Director of Green Path Vietnam Trading and Import-Export Company, said in 2018, Green Path was the first business to ship Hanoi’s longan to the US market.-VNA