Vietnam to Set up National Norms for Vegetables and Fruits

Vietnam’s Standards and Quality Center and Vietnam Fruit Association co-held a symposium on building national norms for Vietnam vegetables and fruit.

 

At the symposium, six out of 18 national norms for Vietnam vegetables and fruit have received opinions and then drafted out for ratification from the Ministry of Science and Technology.

 

These norms will be based on the international frame set up by CODEX. All the items focused on fresh orange and cucumber, which belonged to fresh vegetables and fruit group; and orange jam, chilled pineapple, dried onion, dried garlic which belonged to processed products group.

 

Vietnam, as of early 2006, had 766,900 hectares of orchards with fruit production reaching 6.5 million tons. The country has more than 30 kinds of fruit trees, classified into 3 groups: tropical fruit trees (banana, pineapple, mango, etc.); semi-tropical fruit trees (orange, mandarin, litchi, longan, etc) and temperate fruit trees (plum, pearl, etc).

 

Litchi, longan, and rambutan are the most developed, making up 26 per cent of the total fruit tree area; banana alone makes up about 19 per cent.

 

Vietnam's total vegetable area hit 635,800 hectares in early 2006, with a production of 9,640,300 metric tons. Red River Delta made up the most around 24.9 per cent in cultivating area and 29.6 per cent in output of vegetables of the whole country; the second is the Mekong River Delta, with the rates of 25.9 per cent and 28.3 per cent respectively. (www.rauhoaquavn.vn)