Executive Officer Soichi Okazaki of Japan’s AEON shopping mall developer and operator has said the company wants to import fresh “thieu” lychee and other tropical fruits from Vietnam.

Executive Officer Soichi Okazaki of Japan's AEON shopping mall developer
and operator holds a box of Vietnamese "thieu" lychee 

Vietnam’s “thieu” lychee hit the shelves of AEON shopping centres across Japan starting on June 22.

Ambassador to Japan Vu Hong Nam said that Vietnamese “thieu” lychee being for sale at Japanese malls demonstrates that Vietnam’s agricultural sector has succeeded in meeting stringent standards of such a demanding market as Japan, which is hoped to help Vietnam’s lychee to conquer other choosy markets in the future.

In the coming time, the Vietnamese Embassy will work with relevant agencies to help longan and other fruits cultivated in Vietnam enter the Japanese market, he added.

On June 20, the first batch of fresh “thieu” lychee went through customs clearance at Japan's Narita International Airport. Upcoming shipments are set to reach the East Asian nation via sea transport.

In late 2019, Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) announced the opening of the door to Vietnamese lychee, with regulations in place on imported plant quarantining for the fruit.

This was the result of more than five years of negotiations between the Vietnamese Plant Protection Department at the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and MAFF.