VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnamese don’t know what they eat--Chinese or the US fruits, because both management agencies and consumers cannot tell exactly about the origin of the products.

Navel brand oranges from Australia and Red Delicious apples from the US are being sold at VND50,999 per kilo and VND44,900 per kilo, respectively, at Metro supermarket. The price levels are more competitive if compared with the prices posted at Big C and import fruit shops in HCM City.

However, many people hesitate to buy the fruits, because they don’t believe that the fruits from Australia and the US can be so cheap.

According to Nguyen Xuan Hai, Director of Klever Fruits, a chain with 10 shops specializing in distributing fruits in Hanoi, four kinds of US fruits, including apples, cherries, pears and grapes, have been allowed to be imported to Vietnam.

Vietnam now applies very strict quarantine regulations on import fruits. All the import consignments must have samples tested by Vietnamese competent agencies to find out if there are insect, epidemic and chemical residues. Therefore, importers cannot sell import fruits at low prices.

However, no one and no state agency can show the evidences to prove that the fruits are not imported from the US or Australia as introduced by the sellers.

Meanwhile, there are numerous import fruit distributors, from supermarkets, private run shops, pavement kiosks to trade companies, which makes it very difficult to trace down the origin of fruits.

The information portals of the Vietnam Vegetable and Fruit Association and relevant agencies do not show the information and figures about the imports. People only can find the information about Vietnam’s exports there.

The prices of the fruits advertised as sourced from the US, New Zealand and South Africa are quite different. In general, pavement kiosks always offer the lower prices than supermarkets, while private run shops set higher prices than supermarkets.

While the import fruits have been put on sale in large quantities, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has affirmed that the imports from western countries to Vietnam are “inconsiderable.”

This means that the majority of the fruits available on the market are counterfeit goods.

Vietnamese consumers have doubts that the low-cost import fruits are sourced from China and they are labeled as the products from western countries to be sold at higher prices.

They have every reason to be doubtful. According to the US International Trade Commission, China has surpassed the US in the Vietnamese fruit market.

China has been leading the world in low-cost apple products, which have been mostly provided to the markets, where the selling prices have decisive influences to consumption behaviors. Meanwhile, the US apples target the markets which set high quality requirements.

In 2008-2010, China exported $53 million worth apple to Vietnam, while the US exported $8 million.

In 2012, China exported 547,000 tons of fruits to Vietnam and imported 954,900 tons from Vietnam, increasing by 6.71 percent and 11.16 percent in comparison with 2011.

According to Kris Marceca from USAEC, which represents apple exporters, the US companies have been trying to boost apple exports to Germany and Vietnam.

However, Desmond O'Rourke, an economics professor at Washington University, China still holds big advantages in apple export with its cheap labor force and advanced technology.

Chi Mai