Vietnamese pomelo gets green light to enter US market

After over five years of negotiations, the US Department of Agriculture has officially licensed the import of fresh pomelo from Vietnam, an official has said.

Pomelo is the seventh fresh fruit of Vietnam to be licensed to enter the US market, following mango, longan, lychee, dragon fruit, rambutan, and star apple, Hoang Trung, Director of the Plant Protection Department at the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, told a meeting in Hanoi on October 17.

The US has great demand for fruit, up to 12 million tonnes each year. Its domestic production has met just 70% of the demand while the remaining 30%, equivalent to 3.6 million tonnes, is imported.

Meanwhile, Vietnam is home to 105,400ha of land under pomelo with diverse varieties, generating nearly 905,000 tonnes of fruit. The Mekong Delta alone houses about 32,000ha with an output of some 369,000 tonnes.

This creates considerable room and a great opportunity for Vietnamese fruits, including pomelo, to access the US market, he noted.

To export pomelo to the US, the Plant Protection Department will work with relevant parties to carry out concerted measures, especially training farmers and exporting companies in the US’s import requirements. It will also maintain the granting of production unit codes and strictly monitor pest contamination in fruit.

All pomelo batches to be shipped to the US will be irradiated at the US-recognised irradiation establishments under the supervision of the US Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service and the Plant Protection Department, Trung added.