Seoul (VNA) – Exporters from the Republic of Korea (RoK) have been permitted to ship fresh strawberries to the Vietnamese market.
According to an agreement on food safety reached between the two countries’ quarantine agencies, RoK strawberry exporters will begin selling their products in Vietnam from February 1.
The RoK’s Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs said that the two sides’ quarantine agencies had worked closely on the issue since 2008.
If RoK businesses wish to export strawberries to the Vietnamese market, they have to supply documents showing a registration of address, planting process, strawberry classification, and get quarantine certificates from the Vietnamese side.
The Korean ministry said it will issue a draft instruction on conditions and the export quarantine process for unripe strawberries, and will start receiving registration forms from Korean enterprises from January 19.
It said it hopes that strawberry exports to Vietnam will pave the way for the RoK’s fresh strawberries to make deeper inroads into other Southeast Asian markets.
Statistics from the Korean ministry show that the RoK sold around 3,313 tonnes of fresh strawberries in 20 countries in 2015.-VNA