VietNamNet Bridge - Vietnam has delicious tropical fruits, but they are often not sent directly to foreign markets.


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Most of Vietnam’s cashew nut exports, for example, are raw materials. They need to undergo processing before getting packed and hitting supermarkets’ shelves. 

At the popular Eli Zabar store in New York City, Vietnam’s cashew nuts are sold at $19.99 per pound, or $44 per kilo. 

However, Vietnam sells its cashew nuts at $9-10 per kilo for high-quality products.

An analyst said that Vietnamese farmers and businesses make a small profit, while finished product-makers and distributors pocket the other three-quarters in profit.

According to Luong Ngoc Trung from the Southern Horticultural Research Institute (Sofri), Vietnamese fruits are often exported under foreign brands.

“The US is a difficult to please market. Though it accepts high prices, it always sets very strict requirements on product safety and food hygiene,” he said.

“Therefore, the exporters that provide fresh, safe fruits quickly have more opportunities to do business with the US,” he said.

When asked why Chinese businesses can hasten the delivery time to ensure the freshness of fruits, Nguyen Minh, a distributor of fruit to hotels in San Francisco, said the fruits were transported by air to the Us.

He noted that while Vietnamese exporters waver between shipping exports by air or by sea, Chinese decide on air.

“They have many direct air routes, which allow fruit exporters to carry fruits to export markets at reasonable costs,” he explained. “Though it is more costly to carry fruits by air, it will be not unbearable for Chinese enterprises.”

Nguyen Tuyet Hoa, a Viet Kieu (overseas Vietnamese) in Los Angeles, noted that rambutan was one of very few fruits Vietnam can export to the US directly as ‘produce in Vietnam’.

Though Vietnam has to compete fiercely with Thailand and Mexico, it still can export rambutan directly to the US because it can make off-season products.

Hoa said she rarely can find bananas and coconuts from Vietnam at supermarkets, though the US does not require irradiation for the products.

“It seems that Vietnamese exporters just try to export fruits which have high output in Vietnam, and do not have reasonable strategies to develop competitive products,” she noted.

Nguyen Huu Dat, director of the Post-import Plant Quarantine Center No 2, said that Vietnam should boost exports of coconut and banana which can automatically enter the US and Japan. 

“Bananas can be picked when they are unripe, and there is no need to treat bananas with irradiation or hot steam before shipping,” he explained.

According to Sofri, the US imported $10.92 billion worth of fruits from Vietnam in 2011.

NLD