Negotiations on technical issues were already completed in August, the ministry has said. Now, legal procedures are underway for the official export of fresh passion fruit to the US.
The Vietnam Association of Vegetables and Fruit forecasts that Vietnam might earn around 50-100 million USD from exporting fresh passion fruit to the US each year.
To date, there are eight types of fresh fruit exported to the US via official channels, including dragon fruit, mango, longan, lychee, rambutan, star apple, grapefruit and coconut.
On August 8, Vietnam successfully negotiated to export fresh passion fruit to Australia, making passion fruit the fifth fruit to be officially exported to this market, after mango, longan, lychee and dragon fruit.
Statistics from the Ministry of Agricultural and Rural Development show that there are 9,500ha of passion fruit in Vietnam, mainly in the Central Highlands region. Passion fruit is one of 18 types of fruit with a yield of more than 100,000 tonnes per year.
