Fruit
growers ready to reap export harvest
(16-05-2006)
 |
| Workers of the Fruit and
Vegetable Export and Import Joint Stock Co in HCM City shuck rambutans.
— VNA/VNS Photo Dinh Hue |
HA NOI — Viet Nam’s
fruit industry set a target to harvest an annual 9 million tonnes of fresh fruit
and post export revenue of US$350 million by 2010, said Vo Mai, chairwoman of
the Viet Nam Fruit Association (Vinafruit).
To reach the goal, the
industry is to upgrade post-harvest preservation technology to improve product
quality, reduce post-harvest losses (which are estimated to account for up to 30
per cent of harvests), reduce prices, develop trademarks, build a new export
market development strategy and step up trade promotion programmes, she said.
The Ministry of
Agriculture and Rural Development recently approved a five-year Cuu Long
(Mekong) River Delta export development programme, which calls for improvements
in both quality and quantity of the region’s specialised produce, including
Hoa Loc mangoes, Chin Hoa durians and Tam Binh oranges.
Mai cited statistics from
the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organisation indicating shortages in
the world’s supply of fresh fruit, with average annual fresh fruit consumption
growing by an estimated 3.6 per cent while production grows at just 2.8 per
cent. This presents an opportunity for Vietnamese fruit exporters to increase
the nation’s export turnover, said Mai.
Viet Nam’s fruit growers
project export revenue to hit $330 million this year, reversing a recent trend
of tailing exports. Vinafruit said that due to limitations in storage capacity
to prolong the shelf life of fresh of fruit products, the nation’s fruit
industry posted significant declines in the past several years. Export revenue
fell from nearly $330 million in 2001 to $150 to $180 million over the next five
years.
Viet Nam has about 765,000
hectares of fruit-trees with annual output of more than 6.5 million tonnes. Key
export products include pineapple, banana, orange, grapefruit, mango, durian,
rambutan, dragon fruit, litchi and longan, said Vinafruit. — VNS