A fruit processing plant in the Mekong Delta. (Photo: nld.com.vn) It is expected that next year China will issue permits allowing the import ofpassion fruit from Vietnam, said Le Van Thiet, deputy director of MARD’s PlantProtection Department. If it weren't for the COVID-19 pandemic, China wouldhave inspected the sweet potato and durian growing areas too.
Due to the pandemic, it is thought that it will not be until next year thatChinese authorities will inspect Vietnamese passion fruit, sweet potato anddurian.
Vietnam currently exports ten different kinds of fruit, under official quotas,to China.
Authorities have also asked Japan to provide export licenses for Vietnamesefresh longan from 2022.
According to the Vietnam Trade Office in Japan, the country mainly importsdried or frozen longan products for processing tea and beverage products.
If Vietnam is issued with an import license for Japan, the longan could enjoyas much success as other fruits such as lychee. However, exporting Vietnamesefruits to fastidious markets like Japan requires a lot of time and effort fromboth countries.
Japan has licensed Vietnam’s lychees for export since December 2019.
Nguyen Minh Vu, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, said that Vietnam still hasmany opportunities to increase the export of agricultural products, includingfruits and vegetables, especially to the EU market.
Vietnam is the only country in the Asia Pacific region that has a free tradeagreement with the EU. After the European-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA)came into effect, the tax rate for many kinds of Vietnamese fruit andvegetables was reduced from 10-20 percent to zero.
The EU is the largest fruit and vegetable import market in the world, wortharound 135 billion EUR per year. This accounts for 45 percent of the globaltrade value of fruit and vegetables.
EU countries are recovering strongly after their social distancing period, anddemand for food products is increasing rapidly, including Vietnam’s tropicalfruits and vegetables, according to Vu.
However, fruit and vegetables from Vietnam only account for 1 percent ofthis market’s total imports.
Tran Van Cong, Agricultural Counselor in the EU, said that Vietnam has exportedmany kinds of fruits to the EU, including dragon fruit, passion fruit, coconut,durian, longan, lychee, mangosteen, and seedless lemon. Việt Nam's fruit andvegetable export turnover to this market in the first eight months of 2021reached 88.5 million EUR, including fresh products which increased by 7.7 percent.
Vietnam has improved the quality and competitiveness of its fruit and vegetableproducts to boost the export of those products to the EU market.
However, the volume of Vietnamese vegetables and fruits meeting the qualitystandards and certification of the region is still small. Post-harvestpreservation and processing have not met the requirements, while packaging anddesign are not suitable with EU consumer trends.
Other challenges for local businesses include high logistics costs and a lackof efficient cooperation among them.
To promote the export of vegetables and fruits to the EU market, Cong said theGovernment, localities, ministries and sectors need to provide solutions thatencourage investment in technology and reduce post-harvest losses.
It is necessary to develop supporting industries that have specific mechanismsfor logistics and transportation, to reduce production costs and increase thecompetitiveness of Vietnamese fruit and vegetables.
In addition, Vietnam needs to develop national trade promotion programmes, hesaid.
According to the ministry, the demand for fruits in the global market isincreasing. This is a great opportunity for Vietnam to expand its internationalpresence.
However, there are still many obstacles to expand the export fruit market.
Le Quoc Dien, deputy director of the Department of Agriculture and RuralDevelopment of Dong Thap province, said there is a lack of cooperation amonglocalities in the Mekong Delta to enhance exports of 22 kinds of regionalspeciality fruit.
In addition, farmers still implement small-scale production with nouniform technical production, so it is difficult to improve the competitivenessof fruit products.
Dien said if agriculture wants to export large quantities, those products needto be produced under unified technique and process.
He also stressed the importance of promoting market forecasts for each fruitproduct and improving the value chain. It is especially necessary to connectcooperatives with businesses.
Le Thanh Tung, deputy director of MARD's Department of Crop Production,said that producing according to the standards of importers, traceability andquality certification are the prerequisites of expanding Vietnamese fruitexports.
According to the ministry, the export value of fruit and vegetablesproduced in Việt Nam in the first ten months of 2021 was estimated at about 3billion USD, up 10.4 percent compared to the same period in 2020./.
VNA
