Many export markets still have barriers to Vietnamese fruit

Though Vietnam has fulfilled the procedures and paper-work related to plant quarantines to enter new markets, many countries are still slow to accept Vietnam’s products. 

Though Vietnam has fulfilled the procedures and paperwork related to plant quarantines in order to enter new markets, many countries are still slow to accept Vietnam’s products. Photo: Vietnamnet
 

Hoang Trung, deputy director of the Plant Protection Agency, an arm of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), noted that Australia was very difficult to  please. Vietnam can only export litchis to the market.

Vietnam has also fulfilled all necessary procedures to ask Australia to open its market to other Vietnam’s products, such as mango and dragon fruit. All the technical issues relating to mango exports have been settled. But Australian agencies will send staff to Vietnam to examine radiation establishments in Vietnam.

Though Vietnam has fulfilled the procedures and paperwork related to plant quarantines in order to enter new markets, many countries are still slow to accept Vietnam’s products. 
“However, Australia has not set up any detailed plan to do this,” he said.

Vietnam’s dragon fruit, longan and rambutan have received a license to enter the US market. 

But star apple and mango, the other specialties of Vietnam, still cannot, even though Vietnam and the US have finished negotiations on the procedures for plant quarantine after eight years of negotiation.

It is still unclear why the US does not allow Vietnam to export the two kinds of products to the market.

“We have followed all necessary procedures and have mentioned the issue at all the meetings, low- and high-level ones, but the US side only said it was still considering this,” he said.

It is also difficult to penetrate the Taiwanese market. After Taiwan stopped importing Vietnam’s dragon fruit eight years ago, the Plant Protection Agency conducted negotiations with the Taiwanese appropriate agencies to resume the export.

It has satisfied all the requirements set by Taiwan. However, Vietnam’s dragon fruit still cannot come back to the market.

“Vietnamese businesses are looking forward to the information from Taiwan because this is a large market,” Trung said, adding that in the past, Vietnam exported about 20,000 tons of dragon fruit a year to Taiwan.

A report of the Vietnam Vegetable and Fruit Association (Vinafruit) showed that in 2015, Vietnam exported $1.85 billion worth of products, an increase of 24 percent over 2014. China remains Vietnam’s largest export market.

The report pointed out that the fruit export volume to China soared in 2015: with the turnover of $1.1 billion, it accounted for 2/3 of total export revenue instead of 1/3 as in the years before.

As such, Vietnam could export $400 million more in 2015 thanks to the high demand from China. Analysts noted that Vietnam has more heavily relied on the Chinese market in the last four years.

Khoa Le

Source: Vietnam Net