Pomelo is expected to be the seventh fruit of Vietnam exported to the US market in the future. (Photo: nld.com.vn) During Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh's trip to the US in early May, Vietnamesebusinesses accompanying the Prime Minister met US companies, and the two sidessigned many fruit export contracts to the US market, according to Trung.
Accordingly, besides fresh fruit, exports of some frozen fruit products, suchas frozen durian and many other kinds of fruit are expected to increasestrongly to the US.
In addition, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan and theUS Secretary of Agriculture agreed on solutions to remove technical barriers topromoting the export of Vietnamese agricultural products to the US.
On May 17, the US Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) officiallygranted a certificate of irradiation treatment facility for the Toan PhatIrradiation Co. Ltd., Trung said.
Le Son Ha, head of the Plant Quarantine Division, Department of PlantProtection, said irradiation treatment was a mandatory requirement underUS plant quarantine regulations for exporting fresh fruit to the US.
With the US' latest decision, Vietnam has two APHIS-certified irradiationtreatment facilities, including Son Son Corporation, the management unit of SonSon Irradiation Factory in HCM City and Toan Phat. These two facilities have atotal irradiation capacity of 30,000 tonnes per year. This will be a favourablecondition for enterprises to export Vietnamese fresh fruit to the US market.
"According to the contract signed with the US partner, in September 2022,the first batch of fresh fruit will be irradiated to export to the US,"said Vuong Dinh Khoat, chairman of Toan Phat Irradiation Co. Ltd.
Khoat said the company had invested 10 million USD to build a new fruitirradiation factory in Long An. The factory has an annual irradiation capacityof 10,000 tonnes. Besides that, the company also had created cold storage witha capacity of 10,000 tonnes in the factory to meet customer demands.
Currently, Vietnam's fresh fruit exports to the US are limited due to highlogistics costs, including marine and air transport costs, leading to highcosts in exporting fresh Vietnamese fruit to the US.
"If the transport costs drop to the previous level or 10-20 percent higherthan the previous level, the purchasing power of the US market will increasemuch more," said Khoat.
Ngo Tuong Vy, deputy director of Chanh Thu Fruit Import-Export Co, Ltd in BenTre province, said that having more irradiation facilities for fresh fruitsexported to the US will create more favourable conditions for businessesexporting fruits to the US. Particularly, it will reduce the congestion ofexport fruits and bring competitive prices for those fruits.
Along with increasing irradiation capacity, according to Vy, the most importantthing for Vietnamese fruit exporters is to complete a sustainable linkage chainbetween companies with cooperatives and farmers to focus on developing thematerial region. Therefore, the companies will have enough raw materials ofgood quality fresh fruits to export to supermarket chains or large enterprisesin the US.
The US is completing the remaining procedures to permit Vietnamese pomelo toenter the US market. This is one of the fruits in high demand in the USmarket, said Vy.
Accompanying the Prime Minister to visit the US, she met with leaders ofWalmart, a large retailer in the US. They said they were very interestedin frozen grapefruit and durian, according to Vy.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development reported that in the firstfour months of this year, the US was the largest export market for Vietnam’sagricultural, forestry and fishery products, with an export value of 4.9billion USD, accounting for 27.3 percent of Vietnam’s total agricultural,forestry and fishery export value. The export value of fruit and vegetablescontinued to increase significantly over the same period last year.
So far, Vietnam has six types of fresh fruit licensed to export tothe US: dragon fruit, rambutan, longan, lychee, star apple, and mango. Pomelois expected to be the seventh fruit added to the list./.
VNA
