Vietnam’s Thieu lychee went to Europe under the EVFTA

Pacific Foods Joint Stock Company (headquartered in Ho Chi Minh City) has officially exported the first batch of Thanh Ha and Hai Duong Thieu lychees to Europe under the EVFTA. In the coming days, a batch of lychees from Luc Ngan, Bac Giang will also be on their way to this market.

The mentioned batch of lychees will go by air and land in the Czech Republic, which has the largest Vietnamese community in the EU.

According to Mr. Vu Ba Phu, Director of the Trade Promotion Department (Ministry of Industry and Trade), despite being affected by the Covid-19 epidemic, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has cooperated with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to implement many synchronous solutions in the 2021 crop year to find domestic and especially export markets.

At the moment, tens of tons of lychees from Hai Duong and Bac Giang provinces are available on store shelves at Japanese and Singaporean supermarket chains, and in the next few days, it will be EU countries, a potential market with about 430 million people. This result comes from efforts to connect and promote consumption in the 2021 lychee crop.

Moreover, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has cooperated with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and specialized agencies, directed and supported Hai Duong and Bac Giang provinces in the process of popularizing, promoting and connecting lychee consumption.

The EU is currently Vietnam’s fourth export market for vegetables and fruits. The import tax exemption and reduction as committed in the EVFTA is increasing the competitiveness of Vietnamese fruits compared to countries that have not had an FTA with the EU such as Thailand, China, Malaysia, Indonesia...

As claimed by Mr. Chung Tri Phong, General Director of Pacific Foods, the company's successful export of lychee batches from two famous materials areas Thanh Ha (Hai Duong) and Luc Ngan (Bac Giang) according to GlobalGAP standards, VietGAP, ... entering the EU under EVFTA, once again proves that Vietnamese lychee is always favored by customers around the work, and domestic enterprises are increasingly meeting the strict requirements of fastidious markets like the EU.

“Our company has about 3 years of researching and negotiating the procedures and technical conditions for the export of lychee to the EU and now we are ready. The journey for lychee to reach European consumers was indeed not easy. Right from the beginning of the season, the lychee area for production to the EU must be checked by the import partners for the production management system and approved for monitoring software. We also cooperate with many partners in the investment in machinery to preliminarily process and preserve lychees guaranteed from harvest to delivery to consumers, so lychee will soon be favored and appreciated by consumers in Europe due to its superior quality, delicious taste and safeness", shared Mr. Phong.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Hai Duong province currently has more than 9,000 hectares of lychee, of which Thanh Ha district has more than 3,300 hectares, Chi Linh has more than 3,500 hectares, with a total output of about 55 thousand tons. The province has 45 lychee areas at the moment with a total area of 450 hectares planted according to GlobalGAP standards; 6,300 hectares planted according to VietGAP standards. Up to the present date, 1,000 hectares have been certified with VietGAP, GlobalGAP and 8,000 hectares have been granted export planting area codes.

In 2021, Bac Giang province is expected to have a lychee area of about 28,100ha, with the output reaching 180,000 tons. In particular, the province’s lychee area produced according to VietGAP standards is expected to be over 15,200 ha, 82 hectares according to GlobalGAP standards. The production area for export to the US, Australian markets.. is 218 hectares, the output is estimated at 1,800 tons; The lychee production area to Japan is 219 hectares, the output is estimated at 1,800 tons.