Opening the market: The driving force for Vietnamese fruit export growth - Lang Son Newspaper: Latest news on politics, economics, society, culture

Officially opening the market for many types of fruit will help diversify markets and export products, reduce pressure on harvest seasons, and create greater added value for Vietnamese fruits.

Green-skin pomelo packaging line for export. (Photo: Hong Dat/VNA)

This year, Vietnamese fruits continuously received good news when many products were opened to the market.

Immediately after grapefruit was welcomed by the Korean market, fresh coconut and frozen durian were also officially exported to China.

Officially opening the market for these products will help diversify the market, diversify export products, reduce pressure on harvest season, and create greater added value for Vietnamese fruits.

In the first 8 months, Vietnam's fruit exports reached 4.63 billion USD, up 30.6% over the same period last year. If other fruits can quickly take advantage of market opportunities, fruit exports this year will accelerate even more strongly.

Just the "king of fruits" durian, the frozen durian product segment could reach 400-500 million USD in 2024 - the first year after signing the protocol and soon be on the list of agricultural export products worth "billions of dollars" by 2025.

Durian is still the fruit industry's highest export value, with a turnover of about 1.7 billion USD in the first 7 months of 2024, accounting for 41% of fruit export value.

The Central Highlands is the largest durian growing region in the country and is entering the peak harvest season, providing a large supply for fresh and frozen fruit exports.

According to Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Phung Duc Tien, since durian was accepted by the Chinese market, it has had very high growth.

Seizing this opportunity, localities have also built raw material areas with many delicious, high-quality durian varieties; associated with cultivation processes, growing area codes, and packaging facilities.

Frozen durian exported officially will be a huge advantage to help the industry diversify products, bringing higher value.

According to the Protocol on requirements for inspection, phytosanitary inspection and food safety for frozen durian from Vietnam exported to China, frozen durian (Durio zibethinus) includes whole durian fruit (with shell), pureed durian (without shell) and durian pulp (without shell), originating from fresh, ripe durian fruit grown in Vietnam.

The Plant Protection Department (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development) said that raw materials for frozen durian exported from Vietnam to China must come from registered durian gardens.

The authorities will inspect facilities producing, processing and preserving frozen durian exported from Vietnam to China and introduce qualified enterprises to the Chinese side. Only after registration can enterprises export products to China.

Frozen durian packaging facilities must meet requirements for food safety and hygiene, packaging processes, traceability, and food safety control processes (HACCP). Along with that, there are some requirements for freezing capacity and cold storage.

Ms. Doan Thu Giang, Chairwoman of the Board of Directors of Vinh Khang Joint Stock Company, said that along with exporting fresh durian, the company is now also ready to export frozen durian.

It is currently durian season in the Central Highlands, and the company hopes to soon be recognized to export this product.

According to Dang Phuc Nguyen, General Secretary of the Vietnam Fruit and Vegetable Association, frozen durian will help limit the backlog of goods during the main season. This is a channel that will help regulate output to stabilize prices, increasing income for farmers and businesses.

In 2023, China spent nearly 6.7 billion USD importing fresh durian and more than 1 billion USD on frozen durian.

Being allowed to officially export frozen durian to China is an opportunity for businesses and cooperatives to invest in facilities, freezing technology, and processing technology. This will also be a “game” in preservation technology.

According to Mr. Dang Phuc Nguyen, the durian industry will face fierce competition when Malaysia successfully negotiates to export fresh fruit to China. However, this “king of fruits” is still popular in many countries such as India, Japan, and the US.

Recently, due to chasing quantity and wanting to sell at high prices, some traders and gardeners have intentionally cut fruits that have not reached maturity.

According to Mr. Dang Phuc Nguyen, this will affect the business brand, industry brand and even the national brand of Vietnam.

Therefore, authorities need to soon take measures to control, sanction or issue regulations to severely punish the act of harvesting young durian for export.

Mr. Dang Phuc Nguyen also said that the authorities need to soon develop national standards; in which clearly stipulate the criteria for fresh and frozen durian exports. Thereby, the authorities also have a basis for checking the quality accurately and objectively.

Ms. Ngo Tuong Vy, General Director of Chanh Thu Fruit Import-Export Corporation, assessed that not only durian, but also the fruit industry in general, there are still many bottlenecks and bottlenecks that need to be removed.

That is the lack of product quality synchronization, the connection between stages in the chain is not tight, there is a lack of scientific investment, the planning of raw material areas and processing factories is not appropriate...

According to Ms. Ngo Tuong Vy, the first necessary synchronization is product quality. This is also the most difficult problem in building a national brand for Vietnamese agricultural products.

The uniformity and synchronization of products comes from a whole management process, from the production process, synchronous management, and even regulations.

Accordingly, businesses need to accompany and support farmers, help farmers gain knowledge, have synchronous technical processes to meet uniform standards, and have solutions to improve product quality.

Along with that is the supervision and management of local authorities on product quality standards and regulations... so that Vietnamese fruits can reach far./.

Source: https://baolangson.vn/mo-cua-thi-truong-dong-luc-dua-trai-cay-viet-tang-truong-xuat-khau-5020625.html