As EastFruit analysts report, Vietnam became one of the world leaders in apple imports in 2020, having doubled the volume of imports. In total, over five years, the volume of apple imports to Vietnam has grown more than seven times!
Vietnam now ranks fifth in the world in terms of apple imports, surpassing Bangladesh, India and almost overtaking Egypt. Thus, only Russia, Germany and Great Britain are ahead of Vietnam in terms of apple imports. However, given the high level of apple prices in Vietnam, this country turned out to be the third largest apple market in the world in terms of revenues, ahead of Egypt and the UK, and second only to Germany and Russia.
Apple exporters managed to earn almost half a billion US dollars by supplying apples to Vietnam in 2020. At the same time, the volume of Vietnamese apple imports amounted to about 265 thousand tons. Therefore, the average price at which Vietnamese fruit importers bought apples was $ 1.77. This is a very attractive price for any supplier, at which the highest quality apples can be sold.
“Apples are trendy exotic fruit in Vietnam, where apple trees do not grow due to climate. However, rapid economic growth and a positive demography allow Vietnamese residents to buy expensive imported exotic fruit. This means that the quality must be high. Naturally, this forces the world’s key fruit exporters to look for ways to enter this rather heavily protected sales market and invest in promoting their products in Vietnam,” Andriy Yarmak, Economist at the Investments Centre of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) explains.
In this regard, the signing of a free trade agreement with Vietnam turned out to be very successful for EU farmers. This allowed the stagnant apple industry to enter a huge new sales market with high prices.
“Unfortunately, after the signing of a free trade agreement between the EU and Vietnam, Ukraine was out of the picture, as in the case of apple exports to Egypt. For instance, Poland increased the supply of apples to Vietnam fivefold in 2020 – up to 2.5 thousand tons. Even France, which has been losing its position in the global apple market for many years, managed to triple the export of fresh apples to Vietnam to 11.4 thousand tons. Ukraine still cannot export apples to Vietnam, as well as to a number of very promising markets for apple sales,” Andriy Yarmak says.
The main exporters of apples to Vietnam remain the United States and New Zealand, offering premium quality fruit and investing in their promoting and marketing in this market of more than 96 million people. The two countries together doubled the volume of apple exports in 2020: the United States – up to 54 thousand tons, and New Zealand – up to 42 thousand tons.
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