HCMC – The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has announced on the Federal Register its approval to officially import fresh pomelos from Vietnam.
Pomelo, also known as Citrus Maxima, is the seventh fresh fruit Vietnam can ship to the United States, apart from mango, longan, lychee, dragon fruit, rambutan and star apple.
Vietnam’s Plant Protection Department, under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, said that the U.S. was a large fruit buyer of Vietnam with an annual volume of 12 million tons.
Pomelo is a key fruit of Vietnam, with 105,400 hectares of cultivation land and output of 905,000 tons nationwide.
The department said that local firms needed to abide by the policy set by the U.S. market to accelerate official exportation.
Accordingly, pomelo-growing regions and treatment facilities must be registered by the USDA’s Animals and Plant Health Inspection Service. Besides, the fruits must be free of plant pests, noxious weeds or fungi.
Pomelo exported to the U.S. market must be irradiated with a minimum dose of 150 Gy, certified by the Plant Protection Department.
