Last year, 13 markets for Vietnamese produce imported more than $10 million each, including China with an import value of $218 million, Japan with $54.6 million and the US with $39.9 million.— Photo laodong

HA NOI (Biz Hub)— Viet Nam expects to gain US$1 billion from exporting fruit and vegetables this year, according to the Viet Nam Vegetable and Fruit Association (Vinafruit).

Last year, 13 markets for Vietnamese produce imported more than $10 million each, including China with an import value of $218 million, Japan with $54.6 million and the US with $39.9 million.

This year, almost all the markets continued to see strong growth.

To achieve the $1 billion target, enterprises planned to develop a professional export strategy and cooperate with large importers and distributors to increase market share, the association said.

In the first nine months of this year, the export value of produce gained a year-on-year rise of 30 per cent to $780 million; the industry also raised exports of both high value and processed products, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

China remained the largest export market for Vietnamese produce with export value of $225 million, 43 per cent higher than last year due to high demand and low transport costs.

The second- and third-largest export markets were Japan and the US, said Nguyen Van Ky, Vinafruit general secretary.

Local enterprises promoted investment in technologies for processing, drying and canning so that they could ship more high-quality dried and canned fruit products to China, Ky said.

Other export markets with high demand, such as the US, Japan and the EU, also saw stable growth in the past three to four years. Local enterprises diversified the range of products exported to the US, which includes pineapples, bananas, dragon fruit, rambutans, coconuts, jackfruit, lemons, tamarind, cabbage, cucumbers, onions, beans and chilli peppers.

They also increased the export volume of fresh produce and cut down on exports of canned products.

In the first eight months of this year, produce exports to the US rose 42 per cent in value to $33 million. On June 30, the EU permitted Vietnamese businesses to export certain vegetable and fruit products that were previously banned, so produce exports to the EU rose by 20 per cent each month.

Vinafruit expected demand for Vietnamese produce in these major markets to increase sharply by the end of the year.

Dragon fruit has the largest export volume, accounting for 40 per cent of the total export value on continued demand from several markets including the US, Australia, New Zealand and South Korea. — VNS