Vietnam fruits find many markets ripe for plucking

Vietnam’s fruit exports topped $US205.6 million in the first quarter, a 32.2 percent rise from the same period last year, according to the customs.

With their variety and improving technologies, Vietnamese fruits are becoming popular in many new markets, sending exports soaring.

The Vietnam Fruit Association said the country sold fruits to more than 50 countries.
Dam Van Hung, head of Huong Mien Tay, a fruit exporting firm based in Ben Tre Province, said his company used to export only to China but faced many difficulties there.

“My products sometimes failed to pass customs clearance since they [Chinese partners] had many unreasonable requirements,” he said, lamenting he was often forced to lower prices.

Hung’s firm then contacted fruit importers in other countries and took part in international fruit fairs in an effort to find new markets. It eventually began to export to Germany, Spain, Norway, the Netherlands, and Canada.

Phan Quoc Nam, director of Tien Giang-based fruit exporter Long Uyen Co Ltd, chose another way to boost exports: by shipping frozen fruits to avoid the high hygiene and other requirements for fresh fruit in the EU and US markets.

Long Uyen now exports frozen fruit to South Korea, Singapore, Sweden, the Netherlands and Norway.

Recently, many fresh-fruit exporters have managed to surmount technological and other barriers to enter large markets like the US, Japan, Korea, Australia, and New Zealand.

In the first five months 750 tons of thanh long (blue dragon fruit) were exported to the US, or 90 percent of total exports to that country last year, the Plant Protection Department said.

Vietnam exports 40 tons of this fruit to Japan and 20 tons to Korea every month.

In April fresh rambutan received the green light for entering the US.

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