Fruit and vegetable industry looks to bright future      Vietnam is emerging as a key player among the world's major agricultural exporters thanks to its large reserves of arable land suitable for crops, radical economic reforms and aggressive trade policies. In 2015, the nation’s fruit and vegetable exports expanded to hit US$2 billion, an all-time high, and managed to gain some traction in some of the more demanding markets such as the US, Japan, Australia, and European Union (EU). Drivers The key factors affecting the growth of the industry’s exports have been technological advancements, swelling global population levels, good availability of fruit and vegetable varieties and expanding local production. Challenges Inefficient logistics, and poor post-harvest management are the biggest challenges for the fruit and vegetable industry. The vast area of remote and difficult terrain over which production facilities are distributed makes it tough to transfer fruit and vegetables from one place to another. Most notably, low rural infrastructure hamper transportation and storage. New Developments Last year, the nation’s farmers teamed up with agriculture wizards, marketing experts and mother nature to successfully introduce a limited selection of Vietnamese traditional fruit to select global markets and achieved some promising results. Over three metric tons of lychees and 100 metric tons of longans were successfully sold in the US market, while over 1,200 metric tons of dragon fruit and over 10 metric tons of mango were retailed in the Japanese market. Vietnamese lychees were also given authorization to sell in the Australian market, a process that took 12 long gruelling years to get approval for. Although the sales figures don’t appear at first blush to be all that impressive, they do represent a promising sign as a new emerging market that may very well grow bountifully in years to come. According to Nguyen Xuan Hong, head of the Plant Protection Department, one of the keys to successful growth of agriculture is for the nation’s scientists to develop better-looking, better-tasting, more disease-resistant and nutritious varieties of fruit and vegetables. Lychees, longans, mangos and dragon fruit meet these requirements and have the potential to make a huge international impact, said Hong as they can compete on equal footing with fruits from other countries. Nguyen Dinh Bich, a senior trade expert, agreed and said the global market has a great untapped potential for fruit and vegetable exports and Vietnam has not even come close to scratching the surface of the promising market. It is estimated that the global market consumes a total volume of fruit and vegetables valued at some US$240 billion annually, which leaves ample room for exponential growth of the industry over future years, said Bich. Lastly, Nguyen Tri Ngoc, former head of the Plantation Department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said, “If businesses comply strictly with VietGap and safe standards of importing nations such as Global Gap, Vietnam’s fruit and vegetable exports hold unlimited promise.” Ngoc emphasised ensuring food safety and hygiene is the primary task for the industry. With some two million hectares of fruit and vegetables, there are many bright spots on the horizon for the industry in 2016 and beyond.  VOV