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Apr 11, 2018 / 12:14

Vietnamese rambutan given “passport” to New Zealand

Rambutan will be the third kind of fruit Vietnam exports to New Zealand, following mango in 2011 and dragon fruit in 2014.

That was said in a ceremony held by Embassy of New Zealand in Vietnam and Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) on April 10.

Vietnamese rambutan given “passport” to New Zealand
The move comes after a meeting between Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue and senior officials from the government of New Zealand in July of last year during Hue’s official working visit to the country.
Rambutan from Vietnam has been exported to other markets including the US, Canada, China, European Union and some African and South East Asia nations, cited Plant Protection Bureau of MARD. After seven years of negotiation, the fruit now can enter New Zealand, making Vietnam the first country to distribute rambutan to New Zealand.
Hoang Trung, Head of Plant Protection Bureau briefed that, to gain access to New Zealand, Vietnam rambutan must meet the strict, austere criterions on cultivation, package, label, plant quarantine and origin traceability.
Vietnam’s Vice Minister of Agriculture Le Quoc Doanh said the ministry will be discussing when the first shipment of rambutans will be leaving for New Zealand, as well as the price.
“For rambutans to gain access to a strict market like New Zealand is a positive sign for Vietnamese agriculture,” he said. The Ministry will focus on rearranging the production basing on agriculture value chain, to enhance the chance of Vietnam fruits entering other foreign markets, Doanh added.
Trade tie, especially in agriculture sector, between Vietnam and New Zealand has witnessed positive milestones with two-way trade reaching US$1.24 billion in 2017, figures from MARD show. Only in quarter I/2018, fruit export from Vietnam to the country hit US$934 million, up 33% against the same period last year.