Vegetable exports likely to reach USD 500 million this year

The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) forecast the figure while the demand of world’s markets continues to rise.

Vietnam’s major vegetable products for export include blue dragonfruit, pineapple, mango, avocado, papaw, jackfruit and canned and processed vegetables. Taiwan (China), the US, the EU, Japan, Russia, Canada and China still represent the main import markets for these vegetables from Vietnam.

Blue dragonfruit is among Vietnam’s major vegetable products for export

MoIT said that over the past few years, import demand of these vegetables from all over the world into China was worth about USD 680 million a year, of which Vietnamese exports accounted for only 4 percent in 2010. However, the import demand from the market – and therefore a higher level of export from Vietnam – should rise sharply in 2011, due to China suffering from serious drought and flooding.

In recent years, Japan’s vegetable import demand was worth nearly USD 6 billion a year, with Vietnam’s vegetable exports to Japan in 2010 representing only 0.3 percent of this figure. Vietnam’s import turnover also suffered from new, stricter regulations on food hygiene and safety put in place by Japan. But, MoIT said that in 2011, Vietnam’s vegetable exports should rise to around 0.7 percent – a figure which is valued at more than USD 60 million.

For the EU market, demand of fresh fruits totals around 75 million tonnes per year, with the demand for vegetables coming in at slightly less with 62 million tonnes a year. Vietnam’s export value to the market in 2010 only accounted for 0.08 percent of import turnover. However, big countries such as Germany, France, Netherlands and the UK are still considered as the world’s largest importers for tropical fruits.

Besides major markets, MoIT outlined the emerging markets over the past two years; such as Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia. They predicted that emerging markets could soon make up 10 percent of import turnover of total vegetable exports in 2011./.

http://en.baomoi.com/Info/Vegetable-exports-likely-to-reach-USD-500-million-this-year/5/168321.epi