According to the country's Department of Plant Protection and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, passion fruit exports to the United States will be on the list for Vietnam next year, since plant quarantine measure negotiations are nearing completion.

Technical negotiations were completed in August, the ministry said. Now, legal procedures are underway for the official export of fresh passion fruit to the U.S.

The Vietnam Fruit and Vegetable Association forecasts that Vietnam could earn about $50 to $100 million annually from exporting fresh passion fruit to the United States.

To date, eight types of fresh fruit are exported to the U.S. from the country, including pitaya, mango, longan, lychee, rambutan, caimito, pomelo, and coconut.

On August 8, Vietnam successfully negotiated the export of fresh passion fruit to Australia, making passion fruit the fifth officially exported fruit to that market, following mango, longan, lychee, and pitaya.

Statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development show that there are 9,500 hectares of passion fruit in Vietnam, primarily in the Central Highlands region. Passion fruit is one of the 18 types of fruit with a yield of over 100,000 tons per year.