Vietnam exported US$278 million worth of fruits and vegetables – including the first-ever shipment of red-flesh dragon fruits to the US – and imported US$166 million in the first eight months of the year, according to the General Statistic Office.

But despite the fruit and vegetable trade surplus, exports have still not met the country’s great potential as 90% of fruits still depend on the domestic markets.

To increase Vietnamese exports, localities should set up large fruit cultivated areas, each specilising in a kind of fruit to fulfill large export contracts, said Nguyen Minh Chau, head of the Southern Fruit Research Institute.

Co-operation among fruit growers, nurseries and enterprises is needed to be strengthened to create high-quality fruits, Chau said.

He also suggested other measures to improve export effectiveness, including identifying the origins of fruits, establishing packing houses that meet global standards and growing fruit under the European Retail Producers Good Agricultural Practices.

The country now has 775,000 ha of fruits with annual output of 7 million tonnes, with bananas leading, followed by oranges, longans, pineapples, mangoes, litchis and dragon fruits, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Vietnamese fruits and vegetables are now sold to 50 markets worldwide, including large markets like China, the US and Japan .

The Vietnam Vegetable and Fruit Association predicts that the country’s vegetable and fruit export turnover in 2009 may reach US$450 million, about US$50 million more than last year.

Vietnamese exporters have successfully exported the first red-fleshed dragon fruits to the US market this month.

Though red-flesh dragon fruits have only been grown in the country for a short time, the domestic demand is very high, according to Nguyen Huu Dat, director of the Post-Imports Plant Quarantine Centre II under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Red-fleshed dragon fruits are now growing in a total area of 30 hectares in Binh Thuan, Long An and Tay Ninh provinces. (VNA)