According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the export value of vegetables and fruits in 2020 reached 3.26 billion USD, a decrease of 13% compared to 2019. China ranks the first import market of Vietnam’s vegetables and fruits, accounting for about 56% of the market share.
Vegetables and fruits exports last year decreased sharply because such fruits with high export value dropped sharply as dragon fruit accounting for about 36% of total export value, down nearly 10%; banana accounting for over 5%, down 13%; durian down 56%; lychee down 22%; watermelon down 36%.
Decreased imports from China
From a market perspective, Mr. Dang Phuc Nguyen, General Secretary of the Vietnam Fruit and Vegetable Association, said that the export value of vegetables and fruits decreased sharply due to the sharp decrease imports from China, a decrease of about 25% compared to 2019.
Although exports to China fell sharply, fruits and vegetables exports to such markets still grew well as the US, up about 11%; Thailand over 140%; South Korea 11%; Japan 5%.
In Mr. Dang Phuc Nguyen’s opinion, if the China’s market has more positive signals plus better control of the COVID-19 pandemic, the fruit and vegetable exports will have more positive signals in 2021. Vegetables and fruits exports depend much on the COVID-19 pandemic in the world.
If in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic did not happen, the fruit and vegetable exports would have a good growth, possibly even surpassing 4 billion USD, said Mr. Dang Phuc Nguyen.
However, he added that vegetables and fruits exports in the short term still face many difficulties when the rental price of containers increases very high, even increasing by 2-3 times compared to previous times.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the total value of fruits and vegetables imports in 2020 reach 1.29 billion USD, down 27.5% compared to 2019. China, the United States and Australia are Vietnam’s biggest providers of vegetables and fruits.
For more information:
Ministry of agriculture and rural development (Vietnam)
trangtin@mard.gov.vn
www.mard.gov.vn