U.S. to check litchi factory in north Post-Import Plant Quarantine Center II under the Plant Protection Department and U.S. quarantine officers will check a fruit factory in the northern province of Hai Duong next week and approve it to process and package litchi for export to the U.S. if it meets requirements. The factory invested by HCMC-based Red Dragon Co. Ltd. will be the first fruit processing factory in the north to be approved for meeting the U.S.’s import standards if it passes the check, according to the center’s director Nguyen Huu Dat. Mai Xuan Thin, export director of the company, told the Daily that the Post-Import Plant Quarantine Center II and American quarantine authorities plan to visit the facility on June 9. Thin said the date could be changed and the test result would be the decisive factor for the facility to be approved for packaging litchi for export to the U.S. If the factory meets the U.S. criteria, it will package litchi in Hai Duong Province before having the fruit transported to HCMC for irradiation and then exported stateside by air. “If we are allowed to package litchi on the spot in Hai Duong Province instead of in HCMC, we can ensure the best quality of the fruit,” Thin said. Thin said Red Dragon hoped to sell the first three tons of fresh litchi to the U.S. on June 10. However, he did not reveal the value of the order. Dat of Post-Import Plant Quarantine Center II said HCMC-based Anh Duong Sao Co. Ltd. has successfully shipped the first two batches of Vietnamese litchi weighing one ton to the U.S. market and the market response has been quite positive. In addition to the U.S., local firms are working towards exporting litchi to Australia. The Domestic Market Department at the Ministry of Industry and Trade estimates the combined litchi output in Bac Giang and Hai Duong provinces at 200,000 tons with 60% of the volume consumed domestically and the rest exported. SGT