Processing pineapples at a plant of Doveco. VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — Even though there are requirements to meet, Vietnamese pineapple products have seen huge potential in the European market, including the United Kingdom.

Europe is one of the largest export markets for Vietnamese agricultural products, Nguyễn Thị Thuỷ, deputy director of the Export Promotion Centre, Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency, said at the consultation session on exporting pineapple products to the European market at the end of last month.

The European Union-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) and the UK-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (UKVFTA) are not only considered opportunities for Vietnamese agricultural products to integrate deeply into large markets with high selling prices but also challenges that require production and export enterprises entering these fastidious markets to make drastic changes for sustainable export growth.

For the UK market, Hoàng Lê Hằng, representative of the Vietnam Trade Office in the UK, said that the forms of pineapple consumption in the market are varied, including fresh pineapple, pineapple juice, dried pineapple products, pineapple jam, pineapple snacks, and pineapple confectionery ingredients.

With 119.6 million tonnes worth US$78.2 million in 2021, the UK was the world’s tenth largest pineapple importer and the Europe’s sixth largest after the Netherlands, Spain, France, Germany, and Italy, Hằng added.

The demand for pineapple products in this market is quite stable, with the main source of imports coming from Costa Rica (accounting for 80 per cent of the market share), Brazil, the Philippines, and Thailand. During 2022-2017, the growth rate of the fresh pineapple market in the UK is expected to be 3.2 per cent, while pineapple juice consumption averaged 0.43 litres/person in 2021.

Hằng assessed that the UK is a potential market for the export of pineapple products.

"The matter here is that Vietnamese businesses need to understand the tastes of British consumers, who prefer healthy tropical fruits such as pineapple and especially organic products that meet food safety and hygiene standards with no residues of pesticides exceeding the allowable threshold," she said.

Vietnamese businesses can sell pineapple products through trading firms, or directly to supermarkets and retail groups in the UK. Other successful marketing strategies include participating in trade fairs and exhibitions, and practising digital marketing.

Recent years, the Vietnam trade office in the UK has made great efforts to persuade a businessman to build a pineapple processing plant in Hậu Giang Province, said Nguyễn Cảnh Cường, trade counsellor at Việt Nam's Embassy to the UK.

He hopes that the factory will be completed by the end of this year, and there are opportunities for pineapples from Hậu Giang and Tiền Giang provinces to be supply sources for this factory. VNS