Vietnamese fresh lychee hit U.S. supermarket shelves

Safeway (https://www.safeway.com) and Albertsons (https://www.albertsons.com) are supermarket chains with the most extensive network on the West Coast of the U.S., of which Safeway has 913 stores while Albertsons has over 300 stores.

A representative of the Viet Nam Trade Office in the U.S. said that fresh Vietnamese lychees were sold at these supermarket systems for only US$3.99/pint, equivalent to VND200,000/kg.

This price is quite competitive compared to fresh lychee imported from China and Mexico, currently sold at the Asian market in San Francisco at US$4.99/lb, equivalent to VND259,000/kg.

Chinese and Canadian lychees are the two leading suppliers of this market and the two most significant competitors of fresh Vietnamese lychees.

Introducing fresh Vietnamese lychees to the U.S. is a great success in promoting the consumption of Vietnamese fruits in general and lychees in particular in this market. This is because most of Viet Nam's fruit exported to the U.S. can only access markets and small supermarkets serving Asian consumers.

Currently, Vietnamese lychees are supplied to the U.S. market with the Golden Lychee brand, with attractive and professional packaging suitable for the tastes of U.S. customers.

To bring Vietnamese lychee closer to U.S. consumers, the San Francisco Trade Office, in collaboration with the Vietnamese Entrepreneurs Network in the United States of America – VENUSA, and businesses deploy communication activities on various information channels, especially social networks.

The export of lychee to the U.S. market still faces many difficulties, most notably the lack of US-recognized irradiation facilities in the North.

To ensure the export conditions for lychee, enterprises now have to bring lychees to Ho Chi Minh City for irradiation. This increases transportation costs, transit time and loss in quantity and quality of this fruit, which reduces the consumption time of lychees in the distribution system.

The Viet Nam Trade Office in the U.S. and the Trade Office branch in San Francisco have actively coordinated with relevant ministries and branches, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, to solve this problem./.