Viet Nam will promote fruit and vegetable exports to Japan in coming years due to high demand from there, noted the Ministry of Industry and Trade's Asia Pacific Market Department.
The department said the total export value of Vietnamese vegetables and fruits to Japan is expected to increase to US$77 million in 2015 and $135 million in 2020.
Koshida Ryu, a farming expert of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), claimed that not only dragon fruit and mango but also other kinds of Vietnamese fruit could enter the Japanese market, including rambutan, milk fruit and longan, reported the Thoi bao Kinh te Viet Nam (VnEconomy) newspaper.
Japanese consumers have tasted Vietnamese fruits during tours to the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta region, and they enjoy the local fruit taste.
According to Viet Nam's General Customs Department, the export value of the country's vegetable and fruit products to Japan gained a year-on-year increase of 16.78 per cent in 2012, reaching $54.65 million, and of 12.03 per cent in 2013, reaching $61.22 million.
Some kinds of Vietnamese fruit have built a strong reputation in the Japanese market, such as Hoa Loc mango, Chin Hoa durian and Nam Roi grapefruit.
The increase was due to preferential tariffs created under the Viet Nam–Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (VJEPA).
However, Vietnamese vegetable and fruit export volume is still only a small segment of Japan's total vegetable and fruit imports, accounting for only 0.6-0.9 per cent of the total.
To promote exports to Japan, Viet Nam should pay attention to the quality of those products because Japan has strict quality and food hygiene and safety standards.
Additionally, by 2020, Vietnamese enterprises should diversify vegetable and fruit products to Japan, especially for tropical fruits, such as bananas, pineapples, mangoes, oranges, lemons, onions, ginger, carrots, and peppers./.