Vietnam is looking to raise its game on quality in a bid to capture a larger slice of the export market.

The Southern Institute for Fruit Research (SOFRI) has recently formed a general set of international standards for six kinds of Vietnamese fruit.

According to Nguyen Van Ky, general secretary of the Vietnam Fruit Association, the old set of standards for fruit only met domestic requirements.

These new standards will prompt Vietnamese fruit farmers to approach new technologies to meet the demands of international consumers, especially in China, the largest exporting market of Vietnam, said Ky.

Nguyen Minh Chau, SOFRI chief, said: “Once the new standards have been applied, bad fruit will be eliminated at once.

“The standards will help reduce freight, maintain brand names of good fruit and lay the foundation for the application of new standards on other kinds of fruit, extending the market for Vietnam fruit.”

The application of the new standards issued by SOFRI is said to be very timely and effective, especially when Vietnam is pushing to join the World Trade Organisation.

Vietnam has a wide varity of fruit to export, but low and inconsistent quality is still the main obstacle for the country when competing against rivals like Thailand in the overseas markets.

SOFRI’s new standards are based on 10 norms including breed, shape, size, uniformity, freshness, skin color, texture, marks of chemicals and pesticides, sanitary status and stem.

The new standards will be applied to Vietnam’s Hoa Loc sweet mango, cowhide longan, rambutan, dragon fruit, pineapple and mangosteen, said Chau.

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