Vietnam's fruit and vegetable exports see strong growth

The total value of fruit and vegetable exports reached US$3.010 billion as of November 15, 2017, according to the latest statistics from the General Department of Vietnam Customs.

Illustrative Image (Photo: Thai Thien).

In the first half of November, the fruit and vegetable exports increased 8.3%, accounting for US$11 million, over the second half of October.

China is the biggest import market of Vietnamese fruits and vegetables, accounting for 70.8% of the market share.

Many kinds of Vietnam’s fruits and vegetables are now available in markets with high demand, such as the US, the Republic of Korea, Japan, the Netherlands, Malaysia, Chinese Taipei and Thailand.

The agricultural restructuring plan for 2017-2020 approved by the Prime Minister defined the national key products including products with export turnover of US$1 billion and over as well as pork and poultry. Therefore, fruits and vegetables are the key export products of the country.

The Government will also promote mechanisms for the shift of infertile rice land into the cultivation land for other types of plants, particularly vegetable production under high technology.

Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development set a target of increasing the total area of fruits in the country to 910,000 hectares, producing 9.5 million tonnes of fruits in the coming time.

The export turnover of fruits and vegetables are expected to reach more than US$4.5 billion by 2020, of which fruits account for over 80%.

As of November 15, 2017, the total import-export turnover of the country was over US$365.48 billion, up 21.4% over the same period from last year.

(Source: NDO)