Tag: Asia Fruit Congress

Fresh Studio’s managing partner Siebe van Wijk will present about developing the horticulture sector of Vietnam during the Asia Fruit Congress in Bangkok on Friday November 4.

This presentation in Bangkok is exactly 15 years after Fresh Studio presented at the first Asia Fruit Congress in Bangkok in 2007. In Fresh Studio’s latest presentation, we will show how the Vietnamese horticulture sector is developing and what more investments are needed to make Vietnam’s horticulture sector more sustainable and successful in both the domestic and export market.

Traditionally policy makers often focus on developing the export sector, but with a domestic market value for fruit and vegetables of US$ 15 billion, the Vietnamese domestic market should not be ignored. Vietnam for example, already has become the 4^th largest apple importer in the world.

In the domestic supermarkets imported fruits are taking over the shelf space from the domestic fresh produce. A study of Fresh Studio in 2018, showed that on average already 40% of the shelf space was occupied by imported fruits in HCMC supermarkets, and since then this number has only increased.

For sure a Vietnamese consumer would like to eat an apple or a grape once in a while, instead of a mango or a pomelo, but for the future of the Vietnamese horticulture sector it is crucial that it takes the domestic market very serious. Otherwise it may boast to have over US$ 1 billion of fresh fruit exports, but has lost a big chunk of its much larger domestic market to imported fruits from countries like Thailand and China.