Hanoi (VNA) - The Ministry of Industry and Trade has said that theVietnam Trade Office in Japan is continuing to coordinate with relevantdomestic authorities as well as supermarket networks and distributors in Japan topromote Vietnamese lychees among Japanese consumers.

According to the ministry, a year after Japan officially opened its doors tofresh Vietnamese lychees, favourable conditions are now in place for exportsand consumption.

The first batch of lychees, arranged by Japan’s Sunrise Farm Co., Ltdand Ameii Vietnam, reached the country on May 23 and was warmly welcomed bycustomers.

Vietnamese lychees have made a noise in the year since they first arrived in Japan.Initially introduced at the AEON supermarket chain in June 2020, lychees have beenbought by Japanese consumers and also the local Vietnamese community. ManyJapanese customers have praised the freshness of the lychees and bought for their families and friends.

With a growing number of Vietnamese living and working in Japan, there has beenan increase in demand for the fruit. The lychees have even become the first story to be discussed when Japanese people and their Vietnamese friends before they mentioned main affairs.

The Plant Protection Department under the Ministry of Agriculture and RuralDevelopment said Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries has notsent experts to directly supervise and disinfect exported lychees this year, andinstead allowed Vietnamese quarantine agencies to do so.

With experience and the results obtained after a year of exporting lychees toJapan, local authorities, exporters, and farmers in large lychee growing areas arefully prepared for this year’s crop.

Bac Giang and Hai Duong provinces have increased the production and growingarea as well as the number of planting area codes for export to Japan, while majorexporting enterprises have boosted their investment in lychee production and handlingand preserving the fruit to meet Japanese standards.

Central and local State management agencies have also been proactive insupporting lychee sales and exports. The Ministry of Industry and Trade and theMinistry of Agriculture and Rural Development have actively called fore-commerce trading floors and foreign importers to become involved. BothHai Duong and Bac Giang provinces have held lychee export promotion conferencesand carried out online trade activities with export hubs.

In this context, the Vietnam Trade Office in Japan quickly carried out promotionalactivities to promote Vietnamese lychees in Tokyo and elsewhere around Japan.

Specifically, the office coordinated with Japanese importers to urgelocal people to buy lychees through e-commerce sites, and at the same timeactively called for Japanese importers to pay greater attention to investing inmodern technologies to help handle and preserve the fruit more effectively.

Main lychee exporters developed a plan this year to export about 1,000 tonnes offresh lychees to Japan. The Vietnam Trade Office in Japan will also continue tomonitor information and actual consumption in the market.

Japan has stringent standards, the office noted, and consumers have high demandregarding food product quality, especially imported products. More than five yearsof negotiations were needed for Vietnamese lychees to meet the strictregulations in Japan./.