Processed fruits, vegetables enter one-billion-USD export club

Hanoi (VNA) - With continuous strong growth in recent years, processed fruits and vegetables have officially entered the one-billion-USD export club.

According to the General Department of Vietnam Customs, in 2022, although the export of vegetables and fruits reported a year-on-year decrease, that of processed products continued to grow well, with an increase of 9.8% to reach 1.014 billion USD, marking the first time it has surpassed the 1-billion-USD mark.

The Import-Export Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade also noted that last year, the structure of Vietnam's exported vegetables and fruits had positive changes as the proportion of processed products rose by 3.8 percentage points compared to 2021, accounting for 29.47%.

Processed passion fruit products led in terms of the export value and recorded an impressive growth rate in 2022, up 78% to 135 million USD.

Experts said that there remain many opportunities to expand the market share of Vietnamese processed vegetables in the European Union (EU) in particular and over the globe in general in the coming time.

However, the large processed fruit and vegetable consumption markets such as the EU and the US are applying very strict standards with regulations on technical barriers, and residues of pesticides and banned substances.

Therefore, in order to gain a firm foothold in these markets, production that ensures strict food safety standards is a mandatory requirement for Vietnamese fruit and vegetable processing enterprises./.