Door wide open for Hai Duong’s farm produce to enter Japan

Representatives of Japan’s AEON Group survey and evaluate the quality of a lychee growing area in Thanh Ha district

Hai Duong province has great potential for agricultural development with diversified products, high output, and good quality.

The province’s agricultural sector is developing towards large-scale concentrated commodity, hi-tech, smart, and organic production.

The sector and producers have built and carried out clean production processes that meet export requirements to conquer Japan and many other markets.

Some of Hai Duong’s agricultural products, such as lychees, carrots, chili peppers, bananas, and frozen suckling pigs, have so far been exported to a lot of countries, including Japan, besides domestic consumption.

The province is home to two packing facilities and 55 production unit codes for export to Japan.

There are 42 codes for lychees, with an area of 492 ha and an output of over 3,300 tons, and 13 codes for carrots with a scale of 130 ha and a yield of 7,800 tons.

It is expected that 100 tons of lychees and 5,000 tons of carrots will be exported to Japan in 2023 aside from a small amount of other vegetables, tubers, and fruits.

Japan’s AEON Group visited and surveyed a lychee region in the province’s Thanh Ha district in early June.

This was the first time the group had directly worked in the province on the consumption of agricultural products.

The mission aimed to increase the amount of Hai Duong's lychees to be exported to Japan this year.

This was one of activities to celebrate the 50th founding anniversary of Japan - Vietnam diplomatic relations, according to representative of the group Koji Tanihara.

To mark this milestone, AEON Group was committed to purchase more agricultural products from Hai Duong, especially lychees.

The delegation also coordinated with media agencies to disseminate the image and production process of lychees to Japanese people.

In the immediate future, it will take Thanh Ha lychees into AEON Vietnam malls through Red Dragon Co., Ltd., said Koji.

AEON Topvalu Vietnam Co., Ltd. exported more than 23.1 tons of fresh lychees to Japan in 2022 for sale at 350 AEON stores in the country.

AEON Group intends to buy 25.7 tons of Hai Duong’s fresh lychees in 2023 for resale in the Japanese market. In the photo: Workers of Ameii Vietnam JSC. prepares lychees for export to Japan

Hai Duong’s fresh lychees were highly favored and appreciated by Japanese consumers during the Vietnam Goods Week, an annual event at AEON malls in Japan.

The unit intends to ship another 25.7 tons of fresh lychees from Hai Duong to Japan this year and work out a cooperation plan for long-term distribution, export, and sale of Hai Duong’s lychees.

The enterprise has also researched on freezing and processing technology for year-round sale besides fresh lychee trading.

In addition, Japanese experts annually assist the province’s agricultural sector and farmers in improving production processes to meet strict requirements of importing countries.

On its side, Hai Duong regularly sends missions to Japan to further popularize the province’s potential and opportunities for cooperation and investment between Hai Duong and localities and investors in Japan.

This is a chance for the agricultural sector to continue changing in the direction of increasing output and quality for more and more agricultural products to be exported to Japan and other markets around the world, contributing to heightening the value of Hai Duong’s farm produce.

Hai Duong-based businesses’ import and export activities with Japan have increasingly thrived over the past years.

The main exported products include iron, steel, plastic materials, rubber and paper products, animal feed, agricultural products, etc.

Hai Duong’s exports to Japan last year were valued at over 850 million USD.

TRAN HIEN