Hanoi (VNA)ꦍ – ​Fruit export brought home 967 million USD in the first five months of this year, a 147-percent surge against the same period last year, according to the agricultural sector.

During the period, the country shipped 3,400 tonnes of fruits to major markets, including 2,500 tonnes of dragonfruit to the United States, Japan and the Republic of Korea (RoK), 230 tonnes of mango to Japan and the RoK, 160 tonnes of rambutan and 500 tonnes of longan to the US. Exports of dragonfruit, rambutan, longan and lychee into the US increased three-fold against the 2015 figure to 2,000 tonnes. Mango and starfruit will enter the market in June. According to Nguyen Trung Kien from the Institute of Policy and Strategy for Agriculture and Rural Development, of agriproducts for export, vegetables and fruits will grow at the fastest pace. Besides the US and Japan, there is a lot of room for Vietnam to export vegetables and fruit to Australia, New Zealand, the RoK, the EU, India and Chile. Quarantine is an important step to overcome technical barriers in many markets, besides restructuring production process to produce fruit of consistent quality, said Hoang Trung, Head of the Department of Plant Protection. Fruit export is expected to hit more than 2 billion USD this year, up 11 percent compared to 2015, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. Vietnam is currently exporting fruits to more than 40 countries and territories worldwide.-VNA