Vietnam Estimates US$15Mln from Fruit & Veggie Exports in February

Vietnam  was estimated to notch up US$15 million from fruit and vegetable exports last month, equal to the export turnover of February 2005, according to the Government Statistics Office.

 

The statistics also revealed that exports of vegetables and fruit already raked in approximately USUS$36 million in the first two months of this year, up 18.3 per cent against the same period last year.

 

The country is expected to raise its total export turnover from fruit and vegetables from US$234 million in 2005 to US$291 million this year and US$700 million by 2010.

 

In order to fulfill the target, the Vietnam Fruit Association (Vinafruit) advised fruit and vegetable exporters to become better informed about their markets in an effort to be less depended on their existing customers.

 

Vinafruit chairman Vo Mai said at a seminar in Ho Chi Minh City on March 1 on gathering and using market and marketing information, that despite some efforts, local exporters must try harder to raise quality and build up brand names for their products.

 

“All our difficulties come from the little information and the passive behavior of our fruit exporters,” Mai said, stressing that the exporters, therefore, should take pains to learn about import markets.

 

At the seminar, Alan Higginson of the International Trade Center introduced more than 100 websites which facilitate fruit exporters to access not only their products but also other related information including world prices, taxes, preservation methods and markets.

 

Mai said Thai fruits had gained ground on Vietnamese fruits in the Chinese market for two years because their packaging is better, their quality is higher and they are free of import taxes.

 

China was once a big Vietnamese fruit importer. Vietnam’s turnover from fruit export to China has plummeted from US$120 million in 2000 to only US$30 million in 2005, according to statistics of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

 

Meanwhile, Vietnam’s vegetables cannot penetrate major markets such as the US, Japan, Korea and New Zealand partly because Vietnam has not signed the necessary quarantine agreements with those countries.

 

Vietnam plans to expand its total orchard area to 770,000 hectares this year from around 766,100ha last year, which produced an estimated 6.5 million tons of fruits per annum, including 1.4 million tons of bananas, 800,000 tons of citrus fruits and 590,000 tons of longans.