Fruit, vegetable exports reach 836 million USD in Q1

Hanoi – Vietnam exported 836 million USD worth of fruits and vegetables in the first quarter of 2020, a year-on-year decline of 10.9 percent, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

A farmer is harvesting dragon fruits (Photo: VNA)

The decrease was seen in main products such as dragon fruit, banana, longan, watermelon, durian and shiitake.

China continued to take the lead in importing Vietnam’s fruit and vegetable with over 300 million USD, down 29.4 percent compared to the same period last year. The sharp decline was attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Meanwhile, other markets recorded slight year-on-year growth in January-March such as Indonesia with 2.1 million USD compared to only 164,800 USD in the same period in 2019, Thailand 35.2 million USD as against 7.6 million USD one year ago, Laos 9.6 million USD compared to 2.6 million USD last year, Russia 8.2 million USD against 2.4 million USD in the same period last year, and Cambodia 885,300 USD from 340,000 USD from one year ago.

Last year, fruit and vegetable exports lagged behind expectations, reaching only 3.8 billion USD, a year-on-year drop of one percent.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, 2019 was a tough year for the sector. China, the country’s largest importer, tightened requirements for imports from Vietnam via strict quarantine measures and origin traceability.

However, growth was seen in shipments to several markets such as ASEAN (26.6 percent), the US (10.7 percent) and the European Union (32.2 percent).