The 8th American fruit reaches the Vietnamese market

Speaking to Kinh te & Do thi newspaper, Ms. Caroline Stringer, Trade Director of the California Fresh Fruit Association, said that there are currently about 5-6 American exporters ready to supply two types of fruit to the Vietnamese market: peaches and nectarines.

The negotiation process was quite difficult as the product had to meet 6 strictest requirements and pass testing for 40 types of pests and diseases to access the Vietnamese market.

At the same time, gardens must comply with strict standards from planting, harvesting to preservation before reaching consumers.

This is the eighth fresh fruit from the United States to reach the Vietnamese market. Meanwhile, Vietnam is the 41st foreign market for California peaches and nectarines. Several years ago, the California stone fruit industry recognized the opportunities in Vietnam for high-quality peaches and nectarines.

According to Ms. Caroline, this is a great achievement for the industry, and revealed that Klever Fruit is the first importer of these two fruits into the Vietnamese market.

Sharing at the ceremony to welcome the first batch of American peaches and nectarines imported into Vietnam on August 14, Mr. Marc Gilkey, Director of the South Asia region of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, US Department of Agriculture (APHIS) shared that he had the opportunity to visit Hanoi, the suburbs to visit grapefruit gardens, and is now very happy to be able to return here to help launch a new market for American peaches and nectarines.

In the US, peaches and nectarines are grown in many different regions, but only peaches and nectarines grown in the state of California are licensed to enter Vietnam. In fact, the state of California is a place that provides a variety of fruits to Vietnam such as cherries, grapes, oranges, etc. Therefore, the presence of peaches and nectarines from California not only increases the diversity in fruit choices, but these are also fruits that are approved by the USDA with the highest quality standards in the world, completely safe for consumers.

To date, Vietnam is the 9th agricultural market of the US and the US is the 2nd agricultural export market of Vietnam. The total agricultural trade turnover between the two countries in 2023 will exceed 5.5 billion USD.

Opportunities for the Vietnamese market

Vietnam currently has 8 types of fresh fruit allowed to be exported to the US, including: dragon fruit, mango, longan, lychee, rambutan, star apple, grapefruit, and coconut.

According to Ms. Caroline, Vietnam has many unique fruits that the US does not have, while American consumers also want to use high-quality products that are sweet and distinct.

"This is an opportunity for Vietnamese businesses to seek opportunities to export fruit to the US," said the Trade Director of the California Fresh Fruit Association.

According to Mr. Marc Gilkey, the US side hopes to continue to create momentum for the development of cooperation by expanding the market for Vietnamese passion fruit in the coming time. The two countries' continued cooperation to strengthen agricultural trade relations will expand both markets with new agricultural products.

“The United States and Vietnam are already strong trading partners, and this is another example of our commitment to promoting safe and sustainable trade,” said Jenny Lester Moffitt, Under Secretary for Regulatory and Marketing Programs at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

In the Joint Statement of the two countries' leaders on upgrading Vietnam-US relations in September 2023, the two countries committed to facilitating and promoting further market opening for each other's goods and services, supporting trade and economic policies as well as regulatory measures to achieve this goal.