AEON Group, the Japanese retailer, expected to sell about 30 tons of fresh lychee and 2.5 tons of fresh bananas from Vietnam during the three-day Vietnamese Goods Week in Japan.

The Japanese retailer sells Vietnamese agricultural products in some 350 of the group's stores and supermarkets across Japan and on its websites from July 1 to 3.

A number of Vietnamese fresh lychee are sold at AEON supermarket. Photo: congthuong.vn

 "Last year, we imported  five tons of fresh lychee from Vietnam and sold it only in large supermarkets. However, this year, we imported up to 22 tons of lychee and sold them in all AEON supermarkets throughout Japan," Soichi Okazaki, Executive Director of ASEAN Business at AEON, told the Vietnam News Agency.

Okazaki added that Vietnamese lychee is very fragrant and delicious. This year, litchi looks fresher and tastier than last year, thanks to improved preservation and sterilization techniques. In addition to lychee, Vietnam's bananas also attracted the attention of Japanese consumers.

Visiting AEON Lake Town Mori in Saitama Prefecture and attending the opening ceremony of the Vietnamese Products Week in Japan, Vietnamese Ambassador to Japan Vu Hong Nam told the Vietnam News Agency that after two years of the pandemic, the event is being held again this year with a wide variety of products,  and above all, there are more lychees this time compared to 2021.

Sharing the same view, Ta Duc Minh, Vietnam Trade Counselor in Japan said: “I feel the exciting atmosphere of the Week when many Vietnamese people living in Japan also participated and a lot of Japanese people are interested in Vietnamese goods.”

The highlight of this year's program was the "Souvenir Fair" organized for the first time by AEON to present typical Vietnamese knitted and embroidered souvenirs and other items.

A number of new products with the brand Topvalu from Vietnam such as deep-fried breaded shrimp, frozen Cat Chu mango, cashews and mixed nuts were also introduced to Japanese consumers at the Week.

AEON’s supermarkets also instructed on how to make Vietnamese dishes at their display counter so that people can learn how to make and enjoy Vietnamese dishes. 

Vietnamese Goods Week at AEON supermarket system is an annual event organized by AEON Co., Ltd., the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Hanoi People's Committee and the Embassy of Vietnam in Japan since 2015. 

It is one of the effective programs to boost the implementation of the project "Selling Vietnamese goods in foreign distribution systems" with the goal of increasing export revenue from selling Vietnamese products in the AEON system to US$1 billion by 2025.