High profits from exporting off-season rambutan
After dragon fruit, rambutan is the second fresh fruit from Vietnam to be granted a code by the US Department of Agriculture confirming that the growing area meets the standards for import into the US market.
- Initially, there were many difficulties, this specialty fruit product was not exported much, only about 300 tons per year. However, in the past three years, many gardeners in the fruit growing area of Chau Thanh district, Ben Tre province have earned high profits thanks to exporting rambutan to the US market.
Having established a garden for decades, in the past three years, Mr. Phung Van Doi has clearly seen the effective profits from rambutan. 1 hectare of rambutan garden provides a stable income of over 300 million VND per year, 1/3 higher than before 2011. That result is thanks to Mr. Doi's bold pioneering in changing the direction of processing rambutan to produce off-season for export.
Processing rambutan to produce off-season fruit is not easy, but the profit value is many times higher from selling rambutan to the US in the off-season compared to the normal season, attracting many farmers to gradually change their production practices. The actual efficiency of exporting rambutan to the US market in the past three years shows an optimistic sign about the sustainability of this specialty fruit exported from the Mekong Delta in the coming time.
Vietnam's rambutan is exported to the US by plane, with a freight rate of over 3.7 USD/kg, so the cost is quite high, about 6.5 USD/kg. While Mexico and Guatemala export rambutan to the US very close to the place of consumption, can be transported by road, low cost, so Vietnamese rambutan is even more difficult to compete. Therefore, off-season rambutan has once again become the way out for Vietnam's fresh fruit exporters today.
Mr. Nguyen Huu Tam, Head of Tien Phu Fruit Cooperative, Chau Thanh, Ben Tre shared: "People here will change the season, that is, from October to March of the following year, people will export according to that season, at that time the markets of other countries are not available, Vietnamese goods can be sold at a relatively good price to the US market, the price is 3 times higher than the favorable season".
Currently, the most popular rambutan variety in the US market is Thai rambutan, which is a big challenge for gardeners in the Mekong Delta, because most of the popular rambutan growing area is Java rambutan originating from Indonesia. Therefore, to maintain the US market, localities, especially Ben Tre, are looking for more quality rambutan varieties to encourage gardeners to expand their acreage, ensuring continuous supply in large quantities.
According to VTV News-PH