Vietnam has become the second largest exporter of lychees in the world, accounting for 19% of the global market share, according to the International Society for Horticultural Science (ISHS). The world’s largest exporter was Madagascar, accounting for 35% of the global exports despite a low area of plantations, said Sisir Kumar Mitra, an ISHS representative at the sixth international conference on longan and lychee in Hanoi late last week.
Following was China with 18%, Thailand with 10% and South Africa with 09%. According to consumers and companies on the global market, the quality of Vietnam’s lychees was much better than similar products from India and China, he said.
The ISHS representative said in terms of output, China ranked first with 2 million tonnes per year, followed by India with 677,000 tonnes and Vietnam with 380,000 tonnes. Despite having the second largest area of lychee plantations in the world after China, over 99 per cent of India’s lychees are consumed domestically.
Nguyen Quoc Hung, head of the Fruit and Vegetable Research Institute, said Vietnam had a smaller output of lychees against China and India but because of the harvest season and difference in seed quality, Vietnam had seen strong growth in lychee exports. Deputy Director of the Bac Giang Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Viet Toan said Bac Giang Province had over 28,500 hectares of lychees trees, including more than 14,000 hectares produced under VietGAP and GlobalGap standards. The province’s output was estimated to reach 150,000 tonnes of lychees this year.
Besides domestic markets, Lục Ngạn lychees from Bac Giang are available in many countries, including China, the US, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Australia and the UK. Vietnamese lychees have brand protection in China, the US, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Australia, Singapore, Laos and Cambodia.
Vietnam has had 18 lychee growing regions receiving plantation region codes from the US Department of Agriculture while 36 other regions have reached export standards to ship to China this year.
Over the years, many scientific and technological advances have been applied in the production of longan and lychees. However, processed fruit account for only 10 per cent of total consumption volume.
- VDSC/ Vietnam News