The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD)’s Plant Protection Department in collaboration with the New Zealand Embassy in Viet Nam announced the export of Vietnamese rambutan to New Zealand in Ha Noi on Tuesday.

Rambutan is the third fruit exported to this market, after mango and dragon fruit.

Director of the Plant Protection Department Hoang Trung said to export rambutan to New Zealand, Viet Nam needed to meet import requirements such as making a dossier to register the garden of rambutan, which will be granted a code number on cultivation method, control of harmful pests, production as regulated and the use of plant protection medicine.

In addition, packaging units will register and be certified by the department to meet New Zealand’s requirements for packaging and labeling, according to Trung. The qualified irradiation facilities will have to ensure traceability and the treatment of rambutan for export as required.

All batches of rambutan will be checked and granted quarantine certificates by the department, in which it’s guaranteed to be free of infection with bactrocera dorsalis, conogethes punctiferalis and cryptophlebia ombrodelta and irradiated with a minimum dose of 150 Gray and maximum of 1,000 Gray.

According to the Deputy Minister of MARD Le Quoc Doanh, this event marked a milestone in the agricultural co-operation between the two countries.

“It also confirms the advantage of the Vietnamese fruit and proves the quality of Vietnamese fruit which has been improved because New Zealand is a market that strictly controls quality and quarantine of plants,” said Doanh.

Therefore, Vietnamese fruit entering this market also means opportunities to export to other countries with equally tough restrictions.

"In particular, with the effort of local businesses, businesses and growers, I believe Vietnamese fruit will continue to grow, especially fruit exports will increase rapidly and more sustainably in the future,” added Doanh.

In time, MARD will focus on directing from the research and application of advanced science and technology on cultivating techniques to preserving and processing. It will also reorganise production, especially the value chain of agricultural products. Thus, Viet Nam has enough quality and safe agricultural products that meet the increasing standards of importing countries.

Dam Quang Thang, the General Director of Agricare which exports rambutan to New Zealand, said his company would have access to New Zealand businesses to expand export to this market. “We hope that the first batch of rambutan will arrive in New Zealand in the shortest time.”

In 2017, fruit and vegetable exports reached $3.5 billion. In the first quarter of 2018, the export value reached $950 million, an increase of 35.6 per cent over the same period last year. — VNS