Fruit and vegetable exports hit over 3.2 billion in 2020

Processing and packaging dragon fruits for export (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi (VNA) - Vietnam earned 3.26 billion USD from exporting fruit and vegetables in 2020, a year-on-yeardecline of 13 percent, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD)has reported.

Exports were down because many items with high export value saw volumes fall sharply,such as dragon fruit, which accounts for about 36 percent of total export valuebut fell nearly 10 percent in volume, bananas (down 13 percent), durian (56 percent),lychee (22 percent), and watermelon (36 percent).

Dang Phuc Nguyen, General Secretary of the VietnamFruit and Vegetable Association (VINAFRUIT), attributed the result to decliningimports from China, saying it imported 25 percent less fruit and vegetables than in 2019.

He noted, however, that exports to other countries still posted stable growth,such as Thailand (140 percent), the US and the Republic of Korea (RoK) (both 11percent), and Japan (5 percent).

Fruit and vegetable exports were severely influenced by the development of the COVID-19pandemic around the world, Nguyen said.

According to MARD, Vietnam also spent 1.29 billion USD on importing fruit and vegetableslast year, down 27.5 percent against 2019.

China, the US, and Australia are Vietnam’s largest providers, the ministry said./.

VNA