Vietnam's bananas import into Japan rose sharply despite high price

According to Japan Customs Office, Vietnam is the 7th largest banana supplier for Japan in the first 3 months of 2022, reaching 1.5 thousand tons, worth 166 million JPY (equivalent to $1.3 million), up 38.5% in quantity and 30.2% in value over the same period of 2021.

Notably, Japan sharply increased the import of Vietnamese bananas while reducing the import of bananas in general. In the first three months of this year, Japan's banana imports reached 244.3 thousand tons, worth 22.4 billion JPY (equivalent to $171.2 million), down 2.5% in quantity and up 3.5 % in value over the same period in 2021.

The price of bananas imported from Vietnam into Japan (averaging around 110.9 JPY/kg) is much higher than the average price of bananas imported into this country (91.7 JPY/kg) and higher than other major suppliers: Philippines 90.8 JPY/kg; Ecuador 88 JPY/kg; Mexico 109.4 JPY/kg…

Despite strong growth, the proportion of bananas imported from Vietnam only accounted for 0.6% of Japan's total imports, up 0.2 percentage points over the same period of 2021.

Philippines is the main supplier of bananas for Japan in the first three months of 2022, reaching 190.8 thousand tons, worth 17.3 billion JPY (equivalent to $132.39 million), increased by 0.5% in quantity and 6.3% in value over the same period of 2021, accounting for 78.1% of the total amount of bananas imported into Japan. Followed by Ecuador, Mexico, Guatemala, Peru, Costa Rica...