U.S. officially imports fresh pummelo fruit from Viet Nam

APHIS has concluded that the application of one or more phytosanitary measures will be sufficient to mitigate the risks of introducing or disseminating plant pests or noxious weeds for imports of fresh pummelo fruit from Viet Nam.

Pummelo is the seventh fruit from Viet Nam allowed to enter the U.S. after mango, longan, lychee, dragon fruit, custard apple and rambutan.

Other goods such as coconut and durian were already exported to the U.S. but in frozen form.

Statistics from the U.S. Department of Agriculture that the U.S. had huge demand for fruits, estimated at around 12 million tons per year while the country's domestic production of fresh fruit met only about 70 percent of the demand. This was a big opportunity for Vietnamese fruits, including pummelo.

In the first nine months of 2022, Viet Nam's export value of vegetables and fruits was estimated at US$2.45 billion, down by more than 11 percent over the same period of 2021, reported the Import-Export Department, under the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

Among Viet Nam's biggest vegetables and fruits export markets, the U.S. ranked second with US$201 million, up by 6 percent year-on-year and its market share decreased from 21 percent last year to 17 percent this year.