Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Fruit and vegetable exporters should improvetheir processing technologies, especially in the post-harvest and packagingstages, to preserve their products longer and enhance their value, experts said.

Statisticsfrom the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development show that the value offruit and vegetable exports in the first quarter were worth 950 million USD, a6.1 percent rise year-on-year.

Dueto the impact of COVID-19, last year exports fell marginally to 3.26 billionUSD.

Accordingto Dang Phuc Nguyen, general secretary of the Vietnam Vegetables Association,new-generation free trade agreements (FTAs) such as the EU-Vietnam Free TradeAgreement (EVFTA), the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement forTrans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and Regional Comprehensive EconomicPartnership (RCEP) are helping Vietnamese businesses increase fruit andvegetable exports this year.

TheUK – Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (UKFTA), which came into force  late last year made more than 94 percentof vegetables and fruits be exported tax-free, he said.

Manykey products such as litchi, longan, rambutan, dragon fruit, and pineapplewould benefit since tropical fruits originating from competing countries suchas Brazil, Thailand and Malaysia do not have FTAs with the UK, he said.

Expertssaid to take advantage of opportunities and boost exports, businesses wouldneed to improve the quality of their fruit and vegetable products to meet thestandards required by importing markets.

NguyenQuoc Toan, Director General of the General Department for Agricultural ProductsProcessing and Market Development, said post-harvest losses accounted for 10 percentof rice output, 10-20 percent of root and tuber crops and 10-30 percent offruits and vegetables.  

Inthe Mekong Delta, Vietnam’s rice bowl, post-harvest losses were worth more than3 trillion VND (132 million USD) a year, he said.

Thecountry’s preservation methods were basic and outdated, its transport, storageand cold storage were of poor quality, and there were very few deeply processedproducts, he said.

Packagingfarm products also plays a very important role in preserving them afterharvest, but Vietnamese businesses do not pay attention to that, according toexperts.

Some70 percent of fruit and vegetable exports is to neighbouring China, mostly infresh and unprocessed forms.

Littlegoes to the Republic of Korea, Japan, the US, or the EU because of storage andpost-harvest processing limitations./.