Vietnamese longan retail price in Japan is high, about 320,000 VND (13.5 USD) per kilo, but the fruit is very favoured by Janpanese consumers. (Photo: baodautu.vn) Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnamese longan is much welcomed in Japan although its retailprices are high, which brings a big opportunity for local farmers.
Nguyen Khac Huy,director of Hoang Phat Fruit Ltd Company based in the southern province of LongAn, said that after its first batch of 10 tonnes of fresh longan was exported toJapan early this year, the company will continue exporting about 70-100 tonnes of the fruit by sea and by air to the market monthly.
Longan retailprice in Japan is high, about 320,000 VND (13.5 USD) per kilo, but the fruit is soon soldout, he said.
Dang Phuc Nguyen,General Secretary of the Vietnam Fruit and Vegetable Association, said that fourVietnamese fresh fruits – dragon fruit, mango, lychee, and longan – areeligible to be exported to Japan through the official channel.
Longan is ahigh-value export and can be sold at high prices in Japan, he said, adding thatJapan’s import of the fruit brings a big opportunity for Vietnamese farmers.
Vietnam now hasabout 80,000 ha of longan with an output of about 600,000 tonnes per year.However, the area for the Indo-longan variety favoured by Japaneseconsumers is not much and that with the fruit qualified for export issmall.
Ta Duc Minh,Vietnam Trade Counselor in Japan, said that it’s difficult to enter Japan butit’s more difficult to maintain a foothold in the market as if only a batchof products fails to meet requirements, Vietnamese exporters will loseconsumers’ trust and it’s very difficult to regain the trust./.
