Fruits and Vegetables in Vietnam - International Food Policy ...

markets. This is important because high-income markets tend to be more profitable (paying higher
unit prices) and because these markets constitute a large share of the overall market for internationally
trade fruits and vegetables.
The level of agro-industrial development does not refer simply to the size and technical
sophistication of the agricultural processing factories, but also to the level of development of the
public and private institutions that support agricultural exports. For example, some of the fastest
growing components of horticultural trade are fresh fruits and vegetables. Although large factories
are not necessary, a credible system (public or private) of regulating and monitoring pesticide residues
is an important ingredient in promoting fresh fruit and vegetable exports. Similarly, a system for
identifying, monitoring, and controlling pests is necessary for exporting fresh horticultural products
(particularly fruit) to high-income markets with strict phyto-sanitary regulations.
One might ask whether it is necessary to target high-income countries in fruits and vegetables
exports, given the difficulties in penetrating these markets. To ignore these markets is to ignore a
large portion of the international demand for fruits and vegetables. The industrialized countries
account for about 82 percent of the international import demand for fruits and vegetables. According
to FAO statistics, the industrialized countries imported US$ 53 billion in fruits and vegetables in
1999, compared to less than US$ 12 billion by developing countries 1 .
Given the linkages between agro-industrial development and horticultural exports,
understanding the patterns of fruit and vegetable exports is critical to examining the agro-industrial
sector. This chapter is devoted to describing Vietnamese fruit and vegetable exports, with particular
emphasis on their impact on agro-industrial development and rural incomes.
2 Historical background
Although fruits and vegetables have been grown by Vietnamese farmers for thousands of
years, international trade in horticultural products dates back just a few decades. During the 1960s,
1970s, and 1980s, most of Vietnam’s international trade was with the Soviet Union and other
members of the east bloc. These relationships were formalized in 1978 when Vietnam joined the
Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON), the body that coordinated trade among the
Soviet Union and other socialist countries. Vietnam and Cuba were the only tropical countries in
COMECON, so Vietnam was a supplier of tropical fruits to the Soviet Union and eastern Europe.
1 In these calculations, we define “industrialized countries” narrowly to include the United
States, Canada, Western Europe, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand, while “developing countries”
include all of Latin America, the Caribbean, Eastern Europe, and Africa, and the rest of Asia.
Chapter 6. Fruit and vegetable exports Page 6-2