Vietnam’s fruit and vegetable export turnover has reached US$235 million in 2005, up 31.3 per cent on last year, according to the country’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD).
Vietnamese exporters dealt with 50 countries and territories, with China being the key export market, accounting for 42 per cent of the total, followed by Singapore and Taiwan. However, exports to markets including France, Russia and the Netherlands have grown at rates ranging between 40-57 per cent.
Key export products include pineapples, longans, lychees, dragon fruits, bananas, rambutan and mangoes. Vietnam currently has 755,000 hectares under fruit trees. The country harvests about 6.5 million tonnes of fruit a year, including around 1.4mt of bananas, 800,000t of sectioned fruits, and 590,000t of longans.
The Mekong river delta has the most area under fruits, around 231,000ha, accounting for 31 per cent of the total orchard area of the country. Next year, the figure will be increased to 300,000ha, producing about 3.3mt of products. By 2010, the region could have 420,000ha of trees and 4.6mt of fruit. Other large fruit areas include the north-eastern region, accounting for 19 per cent of the total orchard area, and south-eastern region (17 per cent).
From now to 2010, the MARD will focus efforts on developing areas under vegetables, fruits and ornamental trees. The ministry plans to increase total area under orchards to 1.3m ha, yielding 20mt of product, and potential earnings in excess of US $1bn from exports by 2010.
