Recently, a good sign fromthe US market is that the country will import the additional two fruitsof litchi and longan from Vietnam. Vietnam also has plans to exportfruits such as star apple, dragon fruit, rambutan, litchi and mango todemanding markets like the US, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and Taiwan.
According to Nguyen Xuan Hong, Head of the Department ofPlant Protection under the Ministry of Agriculture and RuralDevelopment, Vietnam has many advantages for exporting fruit compared tomany other countries. Vietnam’s delicious fruits include dragon fruit;mango, litchi and many countries want to import fruits from Vietnam.
NguyenXuan Hong added that besides dragon fruit and rambutan, US’s import ofVietnamese litchi and longan is a move to help open up opportunities forVietnam’s fruits to further penetrate the US market as well as otherdemanding markets. At the same time, it creates an opportunity forhorticulture exporters to gradually decrease dependence on the Chinesemarket and ensure sustainable growth.
However, he also warnedthat to export fruits to the demanding markets such as the EU, Japan andthe US, it requires to meet their standards on food safety, usemeasures such as irradiation and hot steam treatment. Major producershave to have traceability systems such as a code system for planting,storage, treatment, packaging and distribution facilities.
Since2008, dragon fruit has been exported to the US market and the exportoutput to the market has increased from 100 tonnes in 2008 to 1,000tonnes in first six months of 2014.
Despite strong competitionwith Thailand and Mexico, the advantage of Vietnam’s rambutan is that itcan be produced all the time, providing the country with a stableoutput.
When penetrating new markets, a problem arising is howto meet the import requirements of purchasing countries. At present,Vietnam’s most difficult thing is small and scattered production scale.Post-harvest storage technology is the weakest element in the valuechain of commodity production. Litchi is an example. If there is nostorage process to ensure required quality, it will be difficult topenetrate the US market.
According to the Ministry of Agricultureand Rural Development, in nine months, the vegetable and fruit exportreached 1.1 billion USD, up 39 percent compared to the same period in2013.
Of the 10 vegetable and fruit export markets of Vietnam,China is still the largest market, accounting for 28.6 percent of marketshare, closely followed by Japan, the Republic of Korea and the US butwith a very small market share 4.74 percent, 3.76 percent and 3.44percent respectively.
It is expected that at the end of 2014 or2015, Vietnam will continue to export star apple and mango to the US;red dragon fruit and mango to Japan; dragon fruit to Taiwan (China);rambutan to New Zealand; dragon fruit, litchi and mango to Australia.
Withpractical support of the state and international organisations as wellas appropriate investment in cultivation, production development,Vietnam’s fresh fruit export revenue to the EU, the US and otherdemanding markets in particular and the world market in general willincrease in coming years, making Vietnam become a fruit export centre ofthe Asian region, said the Communist Party of Vietnam OnlineNewspaper.-VNA