In preparation for the shipment of one ton of star apples to the US, local enterprises signed consumption contracts with cooperatives in My Long, Huu Dao and Long Hung communes in Chau Thanh district and Ban Long communes in Cai Lay district.
Some 56.34 hectares of star apples in Tien Giang province have been designated for growing fruits for export to the US. Vietnam has about 5,000 hectares of star apples, mainly in the Mekong Delta province of Tien Giang (3,100 hectares) and Can Tho city (1,200 hectares).
This is good news for Vietnam’s agricultural sector as a whole and for Tien Giang’s farmers in particular.
As a key province in terms of farming production in the Mekong Delta region, Tien Giang possesses advantages for boosting the development of the fruit production, processing and export industry.
Tien Giang currently has over 74,000 hectares of fruit trees with an annual output of 1.4 million tons, including 1,100 hectares of star apple, which generates a yield of 10,000 tons of fresh fruits per year.
Together with litchi, longan, rambutan and dragon fruit, star apple is the fifth Vietnamese fruit allowed to be sold in the United States market.
Thanks to the exports to new markets, Vietnam’s fruit and vegetable exports this year reached a record US$3.5 billion for year-on-year growth of 43.02 per cent, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
Top 10 export markets for Vietnamese vegetables and fruits in 2017 included mainland China (75.6 per cent), Japan (3.64 per cent), the US (2.94 per cent), South Korea (2.59 per cent), Netherlands (1.81 per cent), Malaysia (1.43 per cent), Taiwan (1.33 per cent), Thailand (1.03 per cent), UAE (1.01 per cent) and Russia (0.85 per cent). Other markets accounted for 7.77 per cent.
In addition to traditional markets, Vietnamese fruit has managed to enter demanding markets like the US, European Union, Japan, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Nguyen Huu Dat, general secretary of the Vietnam Vegetables and Fruits Association, said vegetable and fruit exports continued its strong growth in value this year, exceeding the export value of some key export products like rice, oil and gas.
He said that in 2018 and further, besides improving the quality of vegetables and fruits, enterprises need to focus on processing as a way to add value and extend exports through the whole year, not just during specific seasons.
Dinh Cao Khue, general director of the Dong Dao Food Export Joint Stock Company, said processed fruit products have prices 10-20 times higher than that of fresh fruit.
Khue said that enterprises can only select 40-50 per cent of harvested vegetables and fruits for export on quality considerations, so the remaining quantity should be processed to get higher value from them.