Vegetable and Fruit Export: Still behind Potential

According to the Vietnam Fruit and Vegetables Association (VinaFruit), Vietnamese fruits and vegetables have been exported to around 50 countries and territories in the world. Many countries are interested in Vietnamese fruits and vegetables, like the Netherlands, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, South Korea and Singapore. According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Vietnam, export turnover of these commodities is estimated to continue rising in the second and third quarters because this period falls on harvesting season. Besides, the United States recently decided to expand the import of Vietnamese fruits and vegetables by allowing rambutan imports from the Southeast Asian nation. The first shipment is hoped to move Stateside in mid-May 2011. Apart from rambutan, dragon fruit is a strong agricultural export of Vietnam. According to the ministry, Vietnam has exported 800 tonnes of dragon fruit the United States and Japan in the year to date.

 

In addition to those staples, Vietnam is exporting a wide variety of fruits and vegetables. Vietnamese farmers and agricultural authorities are investing more in applying advanced scientific and technological achievements to downstream processing, intensive cultivation and productivity enhancement, hybridising many new lines of fruits, and producing new categories of products like frozen gac (gac has the scientific name Momordica cochinchinensis and is called variously as baby jackfruit, spiny bitter gourd, sweet gourd, or cochinchin gourd in English) and a blend of gac fruit and chanh leo juice (Passiflora edulis, commonly known as passion fruit). Moreover, farmers have learned precious lessons in food quality and safety management. Hence, many growing and exporting companies have obtained international certificates for food hygiene and safety like HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points), ISO (International Organisation for Standardisation), BRC (a global standard for food safety developed by the British Retail Consortium, a UK trade organization), Kosher Certification, and Halal.

 

According to experts, in addition to the climate and soil advantages, Vietnam must intensify the professionalization of fruit and vegetable nurturing, harvesting and processing. Notwithstanding huge potential, fruits and vegetables are standing behind Vietnam’s major agricultural products like seafood or wooden products in terms of production growth. In exports, these commodities are far behind other agricultural products like rice, rubber, coffee or cashew nuts. But, looking at cultivating area of some 1.5 million hectares, the fruit growing area is just after rice, far exceeding the areas of coffee, cashew, pepper or rubber. However, the economic result is a far cry from those crops. A recent study shows that Vietnam’s fruit and vegetable output ranks fifth in Asia, but up to 85 percent serves domestic consumption. Additionally, processed exported fruits only account for 2.5 percent.

 

In addition, to develop this sector, it is necessary to gather the joint efforts of all stakeholders. Vietnam needs to adopt master solutions to lift this sector: increasing the export of processed fruits and vegetables; upgrading crops; renovating technologies of cultivating, processing and preserving; building concentrated horticultural areas; and strengthening trade promotion activities. Besides, Vietnamese agricultural authorities should guide farmers to successfully implement food safety and hygiene standards like VietGAP (Vietnam standards) and GlobalGAP (international standards) to expand the penetration and popularity of Vietnamese fruits and vegetables on the global markets.