Hanoi (VNA) – The early-ripening “u hong” lychees from Thanh Ha distr💙ict, the northern province of Hai Duong – a lychee farminghub of Vietnam, hit the shelves of Singaporean supermarkets on June 3.

The fruit made a good impression in this market thanks to its quality and prices, the Vietnamese trade office in Singapore said. The Vietnamese lychees will be sold at all the 230 FairPricesupermarkets this year, many more than last year when they were sold only athypermarkets or major shopping malls of FairPrice. From now to the end of the harvest season, Singapore willpurchase at least one 40-foot container of lychees every week, and the exportvolume is expected to reach 100 tonnes by the end of July, according to theimporter. This year, the lychees from Vietnam are sold at higherprices, 105,000 VND (4.5 USD) per kg in the first week and about 120,000 VNDper kg in the following weeks. The Vietnamese trade office in Singapore noted that Singapore is a smallmarket with a population of less than 6 million, but its people have high andstable demand for lychee which they considered it a fruit bringing about goodluck and frequently present in important anniversaries and big parties. Given this, the office has moved to promote Vietnameselychees such as by making posters, posting articles about the fruit’s historyand benefits on its website, and inviting a Singaporean expert to persuadeimporters. Every year, Singapore imports more than 2,000 tonnes oflychees from China, Vietnam, Thailand, and countries in the southern hemispherelike Australia, South Africa, Madagascar, and Mauritius. Without lycheecultivation, it still exports nearly 400 tonnes of lychees annually, both freshand canned ones, equivalent to some 20 percent of its total import volume. Singapore ships fresh lychees mostly to Malaysia, Indonesia,Brunei, and the Philippines and the canned fruit to ASEAN countries, SouthAsia, Maldives, Barbados, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Kenya, Seychelles, and theones bordering the Persian Gulf. Tran Thu Quynh, head of the trade office, said this is achallenge and also an opportunity for Vietnamese lychees as both countries aremembers of many large free trade agreements like the Comprehensive andProgressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the Regional ComprehensiveEconomic Partnership (RCEP). Though the export value remains modest, authorities’ effortsand businesses’ resolve to explore foreign markets for the fruit havedemonstrated the supply, post-harvest preservation, and logistics capacity ofVietnam, which is also the key for all commodities of the country to reach theworld, she added./.