Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - With robust export of fruits andvegetables, the industry has set a typical example for quick transformation inthe context of economic difficulties to tap the potential and expand globalreach.

Statistics of the Import-Export Department under the Ministry ofIndustry and Trade showed that fruit and vegetable exports totalled 510million USD in January, representing a rise of 24.9% over December and 112.1%against the same month last year.

Looking back at 2023, many fruits saw impressive growth in export,such as durian by 430.1% to 2.2 billion USD. The export revenue of dragon fruitsreached 523 million USD, banana 242 million USD, jackfruit 168 million USD andmango 154 million USD.

Bright prospects are fuelled by the huge demand of the Chinesemarket, with Vietnam negotiating for official export of more types of fruitscoupled with efforts to promote exports to other markets such as the US, the EU,Australia and the Republic of Korea, according to the department.

The department forecast the export of fruits and vegetables willreach 6.5 billion USD this year, after setting a record of nearly 5.6 billion USDin 2023.

Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan saidthat the thinking needs to be changed to keep up with the market-basedmechanism.

“Vietnam is open, our market is the whole world and we are also apart of the global market. There is no certain data on how much the worldconsumes each year. Thus, the thinking must be changed,” he said.

The competition is growing fiercer, he said, adding that theplanning for the agricultural sector also needs to be renovated. “The planningmust be more market-based. We must have a framework to guide productionfollowing market signals.”

He also said that the industry should take advantage of tradeagreements to expand global reach, besides domestic consumption.

Huge potential

There is huge potential for the fruit and vegetable industry toexpand export which has just accounted for 2-3 % of the global fruit andvegetable export revenue.

General Secretary of the Vietnam Vegetable and Fruit Association DangPhuc Nguyen was optimistic, forecasting that the fruit and vegetable exportswould expand at 15-20% in 2024 to set a new record high with the value toexceed 6 billion USD or even hit 7 billion USD.

The fruit export is growing at a good pace, but greater effort isneeded to open markets for more types of fruits.

The market share of Vietnam in the global fruit and vegetablemarket remained modest.

For example, the EU is the largest fruit and vegetable importmarket in the world with an annual value of up to 150 billion USD, but Vietnam’sexport accounted for just 0.18%.

Nguyen said the EU is the third largest importer of Vietnam’sfruits and vegetables, a potential market where Vietnam could take advantage ofthe EU- Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) to boost exports.

It is important that Vietnam enhance product quality to meetglobal standards such as GlobalGap in order to expand to highly demandingmarkets like the EU.

Nguyen Hong Lam, Chairman of the Vietnam Association of CircularAgriculture, said Vietnam needs to develop value chains for agriculturalproducts to improve quality and stabilise prices./.