Great opportunity for Vietnamese litchi

According to the Vietnamese Trade Office in Australia, Australia is one of the countries with strictest quarantine regulations. Australia hasn’t imported any fresh fruits from Vietnam so far and the country is just preparing for allowing Vietnamese litchi to enter its markets.

For many years, Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and Ministry of Industry and Trade worked with the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) of Australia to make it possible for fresh Vietnamese litchi to enter the Australian market. Australian authorities survey Vietnamese litchi cultivation areas and litchi product packaging facilities and work with Vietnamese authorities on concerned pest management and export potential before allowing fresh Vietnam litchi to enter the Australian market.

Australia is completing final procedures to make it possible for Vietnamese litchi to enter Australia, and Vietnamese litchi is expected to be exported to Australia in 2015. This is expected to pave the way for other fresh Vietnamese fruits such as dragon fruit, longan and mango to enter the Australian market.

Strong support for businesses

The Vietnamese Trade Office in Australia is building a project to research and organize activities of promoting Vietnamese litchi exports to Australia. The project is to survey litchi production and sales in Australia and learns about Australian quarantine regulations subject to litchi, and provides practical suggestions for promoting Vietnamese litchi exports to Australia.

According to statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, high quality litchi production in Bac Giang and Hai Duong provinces came to almost 200,000 tonnes of fresh fruit in 2014. Australia is a target market for Vietnamese farm produce exporters.

The Vietnamese Trade Office in Australia said that apart from surveying litchi production and sales in Australia, the project will promote introduction of Vietnamese litchi. The trade office said that it will work with the Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and relevant localities to build a standard profile of Vietnam litchi and choose some litchi orchards meeting Australian food safety and hygiene standards for advertising.

In the coming time, the Vietnamese Trade Office in Australia will work with the Vietnamese Australian Business Association to sponsor a meeting with Vietnamese Australian businesses with a theme “Buy Vietnamese Goods”, aimed at encouraging Vietnamese Australian businesses to sell Vietnamese litchi in markets owned by Vietnamese and Asian people in Australia and then in other markets in Australia. In the long term, the trade office will make it possible for a Vietnamese business delegation to go to Australia immediately after Australia allows Vietnamese litchi imports./.

By Phuong Lan  - http://ven.vn