Many Vietnamese fruits entered international markets

Vietnam’s fruit and vegetable exports have risen steadily since the beginning of the year, in which, many kinds of fruits have entered international markets like mango, jackfruit, banana and coconut.

The export of bananas has grown strongly since earlier this year. Photo: Hong Thuy.

According to the Import-Export Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade Vietnam's fruit and vegetable exports are estimated to have reached US$400 million in May 2021, up 48.3 per cent compared to May 2020...

Generally, in the first five months of 2021, the export of vegetables and fruits is estimated at $1.77 billion, up 18 per cent over the same period in 2020.

Fruit still accounts for the majority of Vietnam's export value of vegetables and fruits. In particular, in the early months of this year, in addition to the major exported fruit – dragon fruit, the exports of many other key fruits such as mango, banana or jackfruit have also increased dramatically. The revenue from exporting dragon fruit reached $327, increasing 4,7 per cent in three first months of this year.

Meanwhile, in the first quarter of this year, mango exports reached $115 million, up 44.5 per cent compared to the first quarter of 2020; banana exports reached $79 million, up 40.5 per cent; jackfruit reached $52 million USD, up 66.1 per cent; watermelon reached $34 million, up 34.2 per cent; coconut reached $31 million, up 137.4 per cent.

In addition to fresh fruit exports, processed fruit exports in the first quarter also grew at a high rate when reaching $18 million, up 82.5 per cent over the same period of last year.

Some Vietnamese fruits are experiencing strong growth in import market share in China, the largest market. For example, China imported 226,300 tons of bananas, worth more than $120 million, almost half of which (42 per cent) were bananas from Vietnam in April.

Since the beginning of this year, Vietnam's bananas have been imported to China in large quantities, acquiring a significant market share from the Philippines bananas - the largest banana exporter to China with a market share of more than 80 per cent in previous years. Statistics from Chinese customs show that in the first months of this year, about 40 per cent of bananas imported into the country came from Vietnam and Cambodia.

Vietnam's banana export has increased steadily thanks to stronger domestic investment in high-quality banana production. 

Amounts to China from the Lunar New Year to April and May every year as the weather in the country is still cold and the fruit is unable to grow.

However, Vietnam’s bananas exported to China used to be mainly those grown by farmers themselves and then purchased by traders for export so the quantity was not much and the value was not high.

In recent years, many businesses have invested strongly in growing bananas for export, such as Unifarm, Huy Long An, Hoang Anh Gia Lai, etc., helping Vietnam's bananas increase sharply in both output and quality. Therefore, Vietnamese bananas have become increasingly competitive with bananas of other countries and sharply increased their market share in the Chinese market.

Besides, thanks to the improvement of quality, Vietnamese bananas have also been qualified to enter two strict markets with great potential in East Asia - Japan and South Korea. Currently, Unifram is prioritising exporting bananas to these two markets.

In addition to fresh fruits and processed fruits, exports of vegetables, flowers and leaves all grew well with many impressive growth items in the first quarter of this year.

Specifically, fruit and vegetable exports reached $75 million, up 10 per cent over the same period in 2020, of which, chili reached $23 million, up 16 per cent; carrots reached $12 million, up $34.4 million.

Meanwhile, export of flowers reached $15 million, up 30.4 per cent. Export of leaves reached approximately $2 million, up 61.5 per cent.

The positive growth of fruit and vegetable exports in the first months of this year was primarily due to the recovery of the Chinese market.

According to the Plant Protection Department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Vietnam exported over 468,000 tons of mangoes to China, equaling 112 per cent of the whole year of 2020; 348,000 tons of bananas, equal to 87 per cent of the whole year of 2020; 301,000 tons of jackfruit, equal to 92 per cent of the whole year of 2020 and 1.1 million tons of dragon fruit, equal to 63 per cent of the whole of 2020 in the first five months of the year.