AsemconnectVietnam - Vietnam earned more than 3.4 billion USD from exporting fruit and vegetables in the first eight months of 2023, a nearly 60% increase year-on-year. With such high growth, exports may hit the 5 billion USD mark for the year as a whole.

This factory is working around the clock to complete orders from now to the end of the year. It has been forecast that Vietnam’s fruit and vegetable exports will continue to be quite vibrant over the remainder of 2023.
The spectacular growth of fruit and vegetable exports so far this year is attributable to effective market opening policies. In the Chinese market, border gates have recorded a continual increase in fruit exports after many types began official exports to Vietnam’s northern neighbour. At the Lang Son province border gate alone, nearly 1 million tonnes of fruit cleared customs in the first 8 months.
The Kim Thanh international border gate in Lao Cai province also posted strong growth in dragon fruit, watermelon, banana, and durian exports.
To maintain growth rates until the end of the year, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is introducing solutions to manage growing area codes and export packaging facility codes. These are both requirements from importing markets.
In the context of unpredictable fluctuations around the world, with many products such as seafood, forestry products, and cashew nuts having to adjust their export targets, fresh fruit and vegetable enterprises are continually increasing both production and export prices, in the hope of exceeding plans.
Vietnam promotes fruit export to Italy
Vietnam holds huge potential to bolster exports of its tropical fruits to Italy, heard a meeting between Vietnamese Ambassador to Italy Duong Hai Hung and President of Italy fruit association (Fruitimprese) Marco Salvi and its Director General Pietro Mauro.
Highlighting Vietnam’s fruit diversity as well as its robust economic development, Hung affirmed that as a high-quality fruit exporter, Vietnam wants to promote shipments of its staples such as dragon fruit, mangosteen, lychee, and coconut, which have been introduced at the Macfrut exhibitions in Italy in recently years, to the European country.
The diplomat expressed his hope that both sides will work together to open door for Vietnamese fruits to enter the Italian market.
For his part, Marco Salvi said as Vietnam and Italy hold agricultural strengths and boast sound political relations, this is a golden time for both sides to coordinate so as to enhance their trade ties.
Italy has imported a great volume of cashew nuts from Vietnam, while it is a large fruit exporter and importer in the world, he said, adding the country splashed out some 4.8 billion USD on purchasing fruits and vegetables from foreign countries in 2022.
Vietnam yet to receive any UK warning on dragon fruit
The Vietnam Sanitary and Phytosanitary Notification Authority and Enquiry Point (Vietnam SPS Office) has not received any warning from the UK about dragon fruit exported from Vietnam that it violates food safety regulations, said deputy director of the agency Ngo Xuan Nam.
Nam said that Vietnam’s dragon fruit exports to the UK remain normal although some supermarkets in the country suspended the sale of the fruit amid concerns that the imported fruit may contain pesticide residues.
So far, the Vietnam SPS Office received only a notice from UK authorities on a proposal about moving Vietnamese dragon fruits from Appendix II (for products subject to being tested and granted a food safety certificate in exporting countries before being exported) to Appendix I (for products that must be verified and re-inspected at a 50% frequency at destination ports before being imported).
Compliance with quality standards
Farmers and businesses must improve product quality, and strictly follow the rules of origin and ensure food safety to boost fruit exports, experts said.
They made the affirmation at a conference jointly held by the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), and the Vietnam Institute of Agricultural Engineering and Post-harvest Technology and the National Authority for Agro-Forestry-Fishery Quality, Processing and Market Development under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) in Ho Chi Minh City on September 11. Describing fruit as a key agricultural export product, Deputy Director of the MARD’s Plant Protection Department Le Van Thiet said that fruit shipments in recent five years grow 10-15% annually, most of which are destined for China, the US, Japan, the Republic of Korea and the EU.
T.Huong
Source: VNA