Fruit, vegetable exports bounce back in June

Illustration photo

The ministry reported that fruits and vegetables brought back US$ 300 million in export revenue, representing a year-on-year increase of 8.4%. 

Earlier, the Viet Nam Customs reported that in May, overseas shipment of fruits and vegetables hit only US$ 269 million, suffering a sharp drop of 24% against the same period last year. 

As of late June, export turnover of the commodity was estimated at US$ 1.8 billion, down 11.4% against the same period last year due to a sharp fall in import from  the Chinese market. 

In the January-May period, China imported US$ 906 million of fruits and vegetables from Viet Nam, down 30.3% against the same period last year. However, other markets witnessed high export turnover growth rates including Thailand with US$ 68 million (up 233.4%); the RoK with US$ 67.4 million (up 21.9%); the U.S. with US$ 62 million (up 6.2%); Japan with US$ 57.7 million (up 15.7%).

Though fruit and vegetable exports suffered a negative growth rate in the first six months due to COVID-19, there were positive signs. Specifically, grown-in-Viet Nam bananas were officially permitted to be sold at Lotte supermarkets in the RoK which is the 12th largest banana importer in the world. Viet Nam is the sixth biggest banana exporter to the RoK but the market share remains modest. In the first five months of 2020, Viet Nam shipped 2,600 tons of bananas to the RoK for US$ 1.6 million. 

In addition, Vietnamese litchis were firstly exported to Japan and Singapore. Noticeably, the first containers of litchi left Hai Phong Port to Singapore since late May. Singapore is expected to import about 100 tons of litchi from Viet Nam./.

By Kim Anh