Vietnamese Bananas Officially Gain China Market Access

On Nov. 8, China’s General Administration of Customs announced via its website that bananas from Vietnam meeting the stipulated phytosanitary requirements would be permissible for import into China.

Since as early as July of this year, Vietnam’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has been communicating with GACC regarding phytosanitary requirements for several types of fruit, including bananas.

According to the announcement, bananas exported to China must originate from permissible growing regions and be harvested ten to sixteen weeks after flowering (ripe and cracked bananas will be rejected). Orchards and packaging plants involved in exporting bananas to China must be jointly approved by MARD and GACC. The list of quarantine pests of concern includes five species of insects, namely, gray pineapple mealybugs (Dysmicoccus neobrevipes), passionvine mealybugs (Planococcus minor), coffee mealybugs (Planococcus lilacinus), mango mealybugs (Rastrococcus invadens) and stellate scales (Vinsonia stellifera).

Additionally, MARD is required to take a random sample of 2% of bananas bound for China to check for the presence of pests of concern. The sampling ratio will be lowered to 1% if there are no quarantine problems for one year. The occurrence of ripe, cracked or contaminated bananas will lead to the rejection of the whole shipment by China, or even a suspension of imports for the remainder of the season.

As a matter of fact, Vietnamese bananas are not a newcomer to the Chinese market. They have long been brought to China under its duty-free border trade scheme. According to data collected by Vietnam, approximately 430,000 metric tons, 574,000 metric tons and 591,000 metric tons of Vietnamese bananas were delivered to China in 2020, 2021 and the first nine months of 2022, respectively.

Images: Pixabay

This article was translated from Chinese. Read the original article.