Vietnam targets exporting fruits worth over 5 billion USD by 2025 and roughly 6.5 billion USD by 2030, according to a project recently approved by the Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD).

Accordingly, 14 types of key fruit trees have been chosen for intense cultivation. These include dragon fruit, mango, banana, lychee, longan fruit, orange, pomelo, pineapple, rambutan, durian, jackfruit, passion fruit, avocado and custard apple.

By 2025, the total fruit farming area nationwide will reach 1.2 million ha with an output of 14 million tonnes. Of which, the 14 kinds of fruits will be grown on 960,000 ha with an output of around 11-12 million tonnes.

By 2030, the country will have 1.3 million ha for fruit cultivation which will yield more than 16 million tonnes. There will be 1 million ha for growing the above fruits with some 13-14 million tonnes.

The MARD assigned the Plant Protection Department to work with localities to control fruit diseases, and instruct growers to build farming area codes. This helps to provide trace origin codes for products, making it easier to expand exports. This is especially important for markets in Japan, the US, Canada, the Republic of Korea, Russia, ASEAN, EU, Middle East and North Africa, apart from the traditional market of China.

The General Department of Customs reported that in eight months of this year, dragon fruit was the top currency earner among other fruits with nearly 463 million USD, followed by banana with 237 million USD and durian 158 million USD./.