One more irradiation factory qualified to export fresh fruits to the USA

Mr. Hoang Trung, Director of the Plant Protection Department, said that the Plant Protection Department had cooperated with the US Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) and Toan Phat Irradiation Company Limited (Toan Phat Co.) to complete the procedures and thus declared that Toan Phat Irradiation Co., Ltd fully met the irradiation treatment conditions and standards for Vietnamese fresh fruit exported to the USA market.

Up to now there have been two units in Vietnam recognized by APHIS to meet the conditions and standards for irradiation treatment of fresh fruits, including Son Son Seafood Processing Joint Stock Company (the management unit of Son Son Irradiation Factory in Ho Chi Minh City) and Toan Phat Co. These two units can irradiate fresh fruit with a total capacity of 30,000 tons/year. This will serve as a premise for enterprises’ future favorable conditions to export Vietnamese fresh fruit to the US market.

Toan Phat Co. has invested USD 10 million to build a fresh fruit irradiation factory in Long An with a scale of 10,000 tons/year. The factory has been directly inspected by experts of APHIS and has evaluated the factory’s technology as a modern procedure that fully meets the standards for irradiating treatment.

According to the plan of Toan Phat Co., in September 2022 the factory will start irradiating the first batch of fresh fruit for export to the US. Along with the irradiation factory, Toan Phat Co. will also build cold storage with a capacity of 10,000 tons to ensure supply for the consumption market.

Mr. Hoang Trung assessed that Vietnamese fruit has ample potential to export to the USA market in the near future. During the Vietnam Prime Minister’s recent visit to the USA, many businesses from both sides paid a keen interest in how to coordinate and sign contracts with each other to export fruit to the US market. Along with fresh fruits, a number of frozen products such as frozen durian were expected to experience a strong increase in terms of exports to the USA market.

"Within the framework of the recent working trip of Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development of Vietnam Le Minh Hoan with the US Secretary of Agriculture, the two parties agreed to direct specialized agencies to continue resolving matters concerning barriers and technical issues to further promote the export of Vietnamese agro-products to the USA market. The US side has committed to quickly coordinating with the competent authorities in Vietnam to carry out this work," said Mr. Hoang Trung.

Six types of fresh fruit have been officially licensed to export to the USA at present, including mango, longan, lychee, dragon fruit, rambutan and star apple. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has recently received a notice from the US authorities about completing the appraisal of procedures and officially allowing the import of pomelo from Vietnam.