Foreign markets give green light to Vietnamese fruit

Japan will open its market for Vietnamese red-flesh dragon fruit in 2017 while the United States will import milk fruit from Vietnam, Director of the Department for Plant Protection Hoang Trung has announced.

Illustrative image. Photo: HUU CHI

Trung confirmed on January 13 that Australia would also import Vietnamese dragon fruit this year.

In 2016 the Department for Plant Protection pushed hard in negotiations to remove technical barriers on Vietnamese fruit, permitting mangoes to be shipped to Australia, dragon fruits to Taiwan, longans and lychees to Thailand and cashew nuts to Peru.

 

Such efforts have brought about encouraging results for the export of fruit and vegetables which earned a record of US$2.6 billion, even surpassing rice export revenues, and has been predicted by experts to increase by five to ten times in the future thanks to its great potential.

 

Trung said in 2016 his department worked with Chinese authorities to recognise six Vietnamese companies eligible for sterilising rice shipments to China and another 22 allowed to export rice to the world’s largest economy.

 

He added that the Hanoi Irradiation Centre was also recognised by Australia, a significant step for processing export fruits in the northern region.