Dong Thap Province and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) held a ceremony to announce the first mango exports to the US this morning, April 18.

The Mekong Delta province of Dong Thap has become the first locality in Vietnam to export mangoes to the US.

According to Nguyen Thanh Hung, vice chairman of the provincial people’s committee, the province is home to 9,200 hectares of mangoes, producing 100,000 tonnes of the fruit per year, topping the Mekong Delta region.

Mangoes are among the province’s five key products to be boosted for export.

Dong Thap has applied Vietnamese Good Agricultural Practices (VietGap) and Global Good Agricultural Practices (GlobalGap) in mango cultivation, which has helped to improve quality. This has also contributed to raising farmer incomes to around VND250-350 million (USD10,869-15,217) per year.

Le Quoc Danh, deputy minister of MARD, said that Vietnamese dragon fruit, longan, litchi and caimito have been exported to the US.

Vietnam exported USD4 billion value of fruits last year.

Vietnam has exported mangoes to more than 40 markets, including the EU, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. However, export volumes were modest, at just 4% of the total productivity.

The Plant Protection Department under MARD said the US had finally agreed to Vietnamese mango imports following negotiations between the two sides which started many years ago.