Thailand ranks top in importing Vietnamese fruits and vegetables in ASEAN
According to data from General Department of Customs, in February 2024, Vietnam's fruit and vegetable exports reached 325.7 million USD, although a slight increase of 1.4% compared to 321 million USD recorded in the same period in 2023, but decreased to 33% compared to results recorded in January 2024. Accumulating in the first 2 months of 2024, Vietnam's fruit and vegetable export turnover reached 561.6 million USD, an increase of 11.8% over the same period in 2023.
In February 2024, Vietnam's largest fruit and vegetable export market was China, growing by 8.4%, contributing to bring turnover from this market to 195 million USD. With this result, China accounted for 60% of Vietnam's total fruit and vegetable export turnover in the month.
Besides China, Vietnam also exports fruits and vegetables to 28 other markets. In particular, Vietnam's second largest fruit and vegetable export market in the month was South Korea with 19.2 million USD, an increase of 13.6% in turnover compared to the same period in 2023. The next is the US with 17.1 million USD, down by 8.8%; Japan reached 10.19 million USD, down by 14.9%...
In February 2024, Vietnam exported fruits and vegetables to 6 ASEAN markets with a total value of 19.31 million USD, down by 13% compared to 22.2 million USD recorded in the same period in 2023. Out of which, Thailand are the largest export market with 9.82 million USD, equivalent to 50.8% of Vietnam's total fruit and vegetable export turnover to ASEAN.
Malaysia is the second largest fruit and vegetable export market in the bloc with 4.11 million USD; the next is Singapore with 2.75 million USD; Cambodia with 1.19 million USD; Laos with 1.09 million USD and Indonesia with 0.35 million USD.
In ASEAN, fruit and vegetable export turnover to Thailand recorded an increase of 18.7% and to Cambodia with an increase of 22.6%. In contrast, value of fruit and vegetable exports to Laos decreased by 67%, to Indonesia decreased by 44% and to Malaysia decreased by 30% over the same period.
In 2023, Vietnam exports 297.7 million USD of fruits and vegetables to ASEAN, focusing on 4 main markets: Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Laos. This bloc is a close market, Vietnam has advantages in logistics costs and import tax rates of only 0 - 5% while some other markets apply tax rates of 30 - 40%.
In addition, ASEAN market does not require high requirements for plant quarantine and food safety, making it suitable for businesses to test exports before expanding to further markets.
Therefore, experts say that this export figure is still modest compared to ASEAN market with more than 690 million people, so export turnover of fruits and vegetables to internal market should be calculated in billions of USD.
Is it easy to expand export opportunities?
Thailand is currently Vietnam's largest import market for goods in ASEAN and allows importing 5 types of fresh fruits from Vietnam and is considering a number of other fresh fruits such as rambutan, coconut, and passion fruit... Other markets such as Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia and Singapore have no restrictions on number of imported fruits and vegetables.
Ms. Le Thi Mai Anh, Head of Southeast Asia (ASEAN) and Regional Cooperation Department of the Asia-Africa Market Department (Ministry of Industry and Trade) assessed that, despite its potential and large market, competitive pressure in ASEAN is fierce because structure of agricultural products is quite similar so we can only export processed fruits and vegetables or fresh products during off-season periods.
Besides, this market also has many trade barriers, so if enterprises only focus on exporting fresh fruit, there will be many difficulties and fierce competition.
For example, Thai market with more than 66 million people. Bringing Vietnamese agricultural products deeper into this country is not simple, even though there are diverse distribution channel systems here, creating many opportunities to penetrate these systems and reach Thai consumers.
Therefore, Ms. Le Thi Mai Anh recommended that enterprises need to focus on developing products processed from vegetables and building eye-catching and appropriate brands and designs, which will be a good direction to exploit this promising market.
On other hand, to increase export turnover of agricultural products in general and vegetables and fruits in particular to this market, Vietnamese enterprises are required to strengthen links with distribution channels as well as promote advertising and trade promotion.
Mr. Le Thanh Hoa - Deputy Director of the Department of Quality, Processing and Market Development (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development) - also said that Vietnam has many advantages in promoting fruit and vegetable exports in general.
Because in addition to production capacity, Vietnam also has dozens of free trade agreements, creating conditions for fruit and vegetable products to penetrate into many different markets.
To effectively exploit export market potential in general and ASEAN market in particular, Mr. Le Thanh Hoa recommends that industries need to have plans to organize production according to good practice standards for each type of fruit and vegetable in accordance with customer requirements. Standardizing growing process ensures monitoring of food safety hazards from planting, care, harvesting and preliminary processing. At the same time, it is necessary to build a chain of links and organize production associated with trade and processing, domestic consumption and export. Applying mechanization and technical advances improves the quality and reduces cost of fruit and vegetable products.

Source: Vitic/ congthuong.vn