Vietnamese banana enters Lotte Mart in RoK

Vietnamese bananas are marketed to Lotte Mart consumers in RoK.

The Vietnamese Embassy in RoK in coordination with Lotte Mart have held a promotional event to introduce the Vietnamese banana at the Lotte Mart near Seoul Station.

Lotte Mart is expected to import approximately 1,600 tonnes of the Vietnamese banana each year to distribute to its 81 supermarkets across the RoK.

The fruit has been exported to the RoK since 2014 but only on a trial basis to gauge market response, and hasn’t been present at major retailers like Lotte Mart.

About 180 tons of banana worth US$132,000 was exported to RoK in 2015 and the volume was raised to 6,685 tonnes worth US$4.2 million in 2019.

The growth is attributed to active coordination between Vietnamese enterprises, the Republic of Korea partners, and Viet Nam’s trade office in the RoK to improve varieties of bananas along with farming, harvesting, preservation, and packaging processes to meet consumer demand.

In the near future, the Vietnamese Embassy in the RoK is set to continue working closely with Lotte Mart and other distributors in an effort to boost exports of Vietnamese banana to this potentially lucrative market.

The Philippines is the largest banana exporter to RoK, accounting for 78.6%. It is followed by Ecuador (7.7%), Guatemala (5.2%), Peru (5%), Mexico (1.6%) and Viet Nam (1.4%).

The Vietnamese banana is anticipated to have room to increase its market segment in RoK as RoK spends over US$300 million each year on importing bananas.

                                                                                                                      By Vien Nhu