Customs officially admitted Vietnamese starfruit

On December 19, the General Administration of Customs issued a notice on the phytosanitary requirements for the import of fresh Vietnamese pineapples, allowing the import of Vietnamese fresh pineapples that meet relevant requirements. Vietnamese pineapples have long been exported to China, but mainly through informal border trade channels, leading to extremely unstable prices, with frequent price drops during the harvest season. Vietnam currently has approximately 84,000 hectares of pineapple plantations, mainly concentrated in Ben Tre Province and Tien Giang Province in the Mekong Delta region, with an annual production of over 1 million tons. In 2024, Vietnam's pineapple export value is only about $146 million, but after the export to China shifts to formal trade, it is expected that the export value will be significantly boosted. The customs notice shows that the quarantine pests of concern to China include the three-banded fruit fly, Lepidoglyphus ssp., Neocoenorhabditis ssp., yellow-winged silk wild moth, South Pacific hip-marked scale, large Pacific hip-marked scale, West African armored scale, spider silk flat-thorn scale, and seven-horned wax scale. Pineapple orchards exporting to China should establish a complete quality management system and traceability system under Vietnamese supervision, implement good agricultural practices (GAP), and implement integrated pest management (IPM). During the packaging process of pineapples exported to China, manual selection, sorting, and cleaning should be carried out to remove diseased fruits, insect-damaged fruits, rotten fruits, deformed fruits, branches, leaves, or other plant residues and soil, and effective measures such as high-pressure air guns or water guns should be used to clean the fruit surface, and if necessary, a fine, soft, clean cotton cloth can be used to manually wipe the pineapple surface to effectively remove insects, insect eggs, and pathogenic spores attached to the fruit surface. Image source: pixabay2025 International Fruit and Vegetable Report. All rights reserved. For reprinting, please contact the International Fruit and Vegetable Report for permission and indicate the source as the International Fruit and Vegetable Report.