HCM City (VNS/VNA) - In recent years, many foreign fruit exportershave entered Vietnam to take advantage of local people’s rising popularity ofimported fruit in the country.

Last year, the total amount of foreign fruit consumption in the country reached1.7 trillion USD, and is expected to continue to increase.

In the last three years, many foreign fruit exporters have been looking forimport partners in Vietnam.

Last week, the three biggest grape growers from Sunraysia, Australia,representing the Australian Table Grape Association Inc, and the Australiantrade agency (Austrade) promoted their high-quality fresh grapes to consumersin Hanoi and HCM City.

Vietnam is the 7th largest import market for fresh grapes inAustralia. Australian grape export companies have organised many activities topromote their products to Vietnamese customers, according to Jeff Scott,director of Australian Table Grape Association Inc.

Besides grapes, cherries are one of Australia’s major fruit exports. Last year,Australia sold almost 350 tonnes of cherries to Vietnam.

In addition, Vietnam has become an ideal market for New Zealand’s apples.

New Zealand began exporting fruits to Vietnam after the direct flight fromAuckland to HCM City opened in 2016.

Dinh Ngoc Thuy, deputy director of Klever Fruits, which specialises inimporting fruits, said that consumer demand for clean and delicious fruits wasincreasing.

The company has imported seasonal fruits fromSouth Africa, the Republic of Korea, Japan, the US and Chile to meet thedemands of customers, Thuy said.

NguyenHuy Hoang, commercial director of market research company Katar Worldpanel,said that Vietnamese customers were focusing on nutrition and food safety.

Each household spends nearly 4.5 million VND (193 USD) per month for freshfood, he added.

The biggest fruit exporter to Vietnam is Thailand, with more than 40 percent,while China is second with 24 percent.

In addition, fruits from the US, Chile and the Republic of Korea are alsopopular in the market.-VNS/VNA