In 9 months of 2025, Vietnam’s fruit and vegetable export turnover reached about 6.13 billion USD, an increase of 8.3% compared to the same period in 2024. This result is raising expectations that the fruit and vegetable industry will reach a turnover of 8 billion USD by 2025.
The strong growth of many items such as durian, lychee, pineapple, or passion fruit has made a significant contribution to the recovery of the entire industry. Notably, strawberries have emerged as a new bright spot, with export turnover in August reaching over 1 million USD. This is an increase of over 730% compared to the same period last year. Overall, in the first 8 months of the year, Vietnam earned over 3 million USD from this item, an impressive increase of nearly 1,000%.
Thanks to favorable climate and soil conditions, Son La strawberries have superior quality and taste.
Strawberries are currently a famous specialty of Son La province. The entire province has 743.2 hectares of strawberry cultivation, primarily concentrated in Mai Son (577 ha), Moc Chau (106 ha), and Yen Chau (53.5 ha). The annual output is estimated at over 9,360 tons. The two popular strawberry varieties are domestic strawberries, priced at 80,000 – 250,000 VND/kg, and Vietnamese-Japanese strawberries, priced at 400,000 – 700,000 VND/kg. These super fruits are large, over 95% ripe when harvested, and even sold for 1.2 million VND/kg.
According to cooperatives, Son La strawberries are favored by consumers because they are cultivated under VietGAP and GlobalGAP standards. Specifically, favorable climate and soil, an average temperature of 17–20°C, and a large difference in day-night temperature help strawberries be larger, crisper, intensely sweeter, and more fragrant compared to many other regions.
The strawberry season in Son La begins with planting in September-October and harvesting from December of the previous year until mid-April of the following year, with January to March being the peak time for the best-tasting strawberries. Besides fresh consumption, many businesses also buy strawberries for processing into jams, soft dried strawberries, dried strawberries, or syrups, contributing to increased value and income for growers.
“All customers who have tried Son La strawberries agree that our product is tastier than Korean strawberries,” said Ms. Nguyen Thi Luong, Chairwoman of the Son La Strawberry Cooperative Union. Thanks to their superior quality, Son La strawberries have been exported to Singapore and Malaysia.
Notably, this February, Vietnam Airlines introduced Son La strawberries, a prominent specialty of the Northwest region, on its flights. Fresh, high-quality strawberries are processed into various dishes such as mousse cakes, yogurt, tea, and desserts, serving passengers on both domestic and international flights to Europe, Australia, the United States, South Korea, and Japan.
From 2023 to date, Vietnam Airlines has transported over 2,200 tons of Son La strawberries, accounting for 92% of the market share, contributing to promoting the brand of Northwest agricultural products to the world.