A farmer is harvesting dragon fruits (Photo: VNA)Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam exported 836 million USD worth of fruits andvegetables in the first quarter of 2020, a year-on-year decline of 10.9percent, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
Thedecrease was seen in main products such as dragon fruit, banana, longan,watermelon, durian and shiitake.
Chinacontinued to take the lead in importing Vietnam’s fruit and vegetable with over300 million USD, down 29.4 percent compared to the same period last year. Thesharp decline was attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Meanwhile,other markets recorded slight year-on-year growth in January-March such asIndonesia with 2.1 million USD compared to only 164,800 USD in the same periodin 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 millionUSD against 2.4 million USD in the same period last year, and Cambodia 885,300USD from 340,000 USD from one year ago.
Last year, fruit and vegetable exports laggedbehind expectations, reaching only 3.8 billion USD, a year-on-year drop of onepercent.
According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, 2019 was atough year for the sector. China, the country’s largest importer, tightenedrequirements for imports from Vietnam via strict quarantine measures and origintraceability.
However, growth was seen in shipments to several markets suchas ASEAN (26.6 percent), the US (10.7 percent) and the European Union (32.2percent)./.
VNA
