HCMC – China is ramping up its import of bananas from Vietnam, while the latter is planning to ship grapefruit to the United States and is negotiating to export longan to Japan, heard a forum on the sustainable development of southern fruit production and consumption on June 8.
Speaking at the forum held by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dang Phuc Nguyen, general secretary of the Vietnam Vegetable and Fruit Association, said that over the past few months, the sales of several fruits to China have declined, while the export of bananas has strongly risen.
In the first five months of the year, China bought 742,000 tons of bananas from Vietnam, up 10% year-on-year, Phap Luat Online reported.
In the coming months, the northern neighbor is forecast to continue scaling up its import of bananas from Vietnam, according to the representative of the association.
Besides, China has agreed to import Vietnamese passion fruit, while negotiations on durian exports to the former are due to be completed, said Le Van Thiet, deputy head of the Plant Protection Department under the ministry.
Tapping the Japanese market, Vietnam is shipping dragon fruit, mangoes and litchis into the selective market, while entering negotiations to export longans to the country.
Meanwhile, Vietnam exports dragon fruit, mangoes, litchis, longans, rambutan and star apple stateside. The country’s grapefruit is expected to enter the United States next month, Thiet said.
Putting forward solutions to increase the consumption of Vietnamese fruits, many representatives of participating enterprises said it is necessary to solidify the brand of fruits, improve the quality of the products, lower the dependence on the Chinese market and diversify import markets in Europe.
