Vina T&T Group makes a foothold of fruit export to EU

The first batch of fruits shipped to the European Union after the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement took effect in August has marked a great success of the Vietnamese fruit industry.  

The US$7,000 shipment was exported by Vina T&T Group on September 17, with support from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) and authorities in the southern province of Bến Tre.

Of the shipment, there were 20,000 coconuts shipped to the UK market, 12 tonnes of green pomelo fruits to German market, and three tonnes of dragon fruits to Dutch market.

Vina T&T was chosen by MARD to carry out the first export to EU because it is one of the experienced businesses and having a large customer system in the US, China, Japan, and Australia, especially the European market system.

Vina T&T was the first Vietnamese enterprise to export dragon fruit to the US when this market opened in 2008. However, it was not easy to overcome difficulties and keep a foothold in this market due to severe competition among exporters.

CEO of Vina T&T Nguyễn Đình Tùng said his group had no experence at that time. It was thought that after being harvested, fruits were irradiated and then exported. “Due to lack of experience and impact of irradiation, our exported fruits were yellow or damaged, some containers of dragon fruits exported by sea to the US port must be transported to the landfill.”

“Having experenced from these failures, I gained successes from the export of dragon fruit in 2015. At that time, I was studying new preservation technology and looking for directions to diversify products,” he added.

The company has then exported longan, rambutan, five-star fruit, durian and coconut to the US. That is the premise for Vina T&T Group to develop and become a large fruit exporter to difficult markets like the US, Australia and Canada.

Tùng said it is necessary to understand clearly the needs of each market, competitors, especially technical barriers. In the US market, it required to have codes for growing areas and packing codes issued by the US, not necessarily certificates like GlobalGAP or VietGAP. Meanwhile, the European market requires GlobalGAP, environmental certification, ISO or HACCP.

“As for the residue of banned substances, there are several substances allowed in Japan, the US and Australia but banned in the Europe. Therefore, enterprises exporting to the above markets must pay close attention,” Tùng said.

Planting is the key

The Vina T&T Group has been granted the codes of growing areas for export to the US, including more than 100ha of longan in Châu Thành in the southern province of Đồng Tháp and 100ha of dragon fruit in Chợ Gạo in the southern province of Tiền Giang.

The group has also built partnerships with gardeners in the provinces of Bến Tre, Long An, Bà Rịa Vũng Tàu, Cần Thơ, Hưng Yên, Sơn La and Hậu Giang.

The group has also invested in building packaging factories coincided with the HACCP and FDI standard, in which they are installed with modern equipment and cold storage system, ensuring the quality of agricultural products for exports.

“To do this, businesses must have enough financial resources to build growing areas, including cost of $2,000 to be granted GlobalGAP standards every two years, and deposit of VNĐ50 million per ha of fruit for farmers at the beginning of the season,” he added.

The group has two packaging factories meeting standards of the US and one packaging factory meeting HACCP standards.

With an annual export turnover of $5 million, marking 20 per cent growth, Vina T&T has confirmed its leading position in the country’s export of fruits.