Vietnam’s banana exports bring in 260 million USD in 2021. In three quarters of 2022, banana exports to China increased sharply, making Vietnam surpass the Philippines, the largest exporter of bananas to the Chinese market. With the recently signed Protocol between Vietnam and China on bananas trade, our country’s banana exports will grow dramatically in the coming years…
According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the country currently has more than 130,000 ha of banana cultivation, with an output of 2.1 million tonnes/year; of which the Mekong Delta has 35,278.9 ha, with an output of 478,877.3 tonnes. Banana is the fruit for year-round harvest and has become a strong export item of our country’s fruit and vegetable sector.
Bananas have been allowed to export officially to China. (Photo: Internet)
BANANA EXPORTS GREW BY MORE THAN 60%
The MARD said that with an export turnover of 260 million USD in 2021, banana is Vietnam’s third-largest export item of fruits, after dragon fruit and mango.
In the first nine months of 2022, total fruit and vegetable exports reached 2.4 billion USD, of which China is the largest market with 1.06 billion USD, accounting for 43.3% of the total export value of our country’s fruit and vegetable.
“For bananas, the value of banana exports in the first 03 quarters of 2022 reached nearly 390 million USD, up nearly 63% compared to the same period in 2021. With this result, banana exports surpassed mangoes to become the second-largest fruit export turnover, just after dragon fruit “.
According to the MARD.
For bananas, banana exports are growing strongly in the Chinese market. According to the Department of Plant Protection, the volume of banana exports to China for plant quarantine is over 430,000 tonnes in 2020, 574,000 tonnes in 2021, and 591,000 tonnes in the first 09 months of 2022.
In the first 03 quarters of this year, Vietnamese bananas accounted for 43% of China’s total banana imports, surpassing the Philippines (28%), Cambodia, and Ecuador. On average, the price of bananas exported to the Chinese market fluctuates by about 0.5-0.6 USD/kg.
Explaining the reasons for the sharp increase in banana exports to China, Mr. Dang Phuc Nguyen – General Secretary of the Vietnam Vegetable Association said that the Chinese banana growing area has now decreased due to the rising cost of agricultural inputs, land rental costs, and labor costs that keep farmers from growing bananas, leading to an increase in import market share. In addition, the effects of the Panama pandemic have caused the quality of bananas in China to decrease sharply
In addition to the Chinese market, Vietnam is also exporting bananas to Singapore and Malaysia. According to the Observatory of Economic Complexity, in 2020, the total export value of Malaysian bananas was 10.3 million USD, however, the country imported 14.4 million USD of bananas. In particular, Vietnam supplies about 45%, equivalent to 6.7 million USD. Due to the severe Covid-19 outbreak, the export value of Vietnamese bananas to Malaysia in the whole year 2021 decreased to about 3.2 million USD.
For the Russian market, banana products mainly exported to this market are whole or sliced dried bananas, similar to jackfruit and mango which are also exported to this market. In the first half of 2022, the value of banana exports to Russia reached more than 1.8 million USD, down 15% compared to 2.1 million USD in the same period of 2021./.