Mangoes will become the sixth Vietnamese fruit to be exported to the United States. — Photo vov.vn

HA NOI (Biz Hub) — The United States Department of Agriculture is proposing to amend regulations to allow the importation of fresh mangoes from Viet Nam.

According to Viet Nam's Commercial Counsellor in the United States Dao Tran Nhan, with this move, Vietnamese fresh mangoes could certainly be exported to the United States from the end of this year.

Mangoes will become the sixth Vietnamese fruit to be exported to the United States. The others are dragon fruit, rambutan, litchi, longan and star apple. The announcement was published in the August 4 federal register for public approval.

As a condition of entry, fresh mangoes from Viet Nam will be subject to a systematic approach that includes meeting orchard requirements, providing irradiation treatment, and submitting to port of entry inspections.

The fruit must be imported in commercial consignments, accompanied by a phytosanitary certificate issued by the Viet Nam National Plant Protection Organisation, with an additional declaration stating that the consignment was inspected and found free of Macrophoma mangiferae and Xanthomonas campestris pv. mangiferaeindicae.

Viet Nam expects to export 3,000 tonnes of fresh mango to the United States annually, representing less than one per cent of the United States' fresh mango imports.

The United States imports nearly 400,000 tonnes of fresh mango per year from Mexico, Peru, Ecuador, Brazil and Guatemala. Although mangoes are grown in Florida and Hawaii, and in smaller quantities in California and Texas, total annual production amounts to only 3,000 tonnes. — VNS