The Import-Export Department (Ministry of Industry and Trade) quoted statistics from the US International Trade Commission as saying that the import of processed vegetables and fruits (HS 20) by the US in the period 2016 - 2020 has seen an average growth rate of 3.7% per year. Despite the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the import of processed fruit and vegetables by the US in 2020 has reached 8.6 billion USD, up 1.8% compared to 2019. In the first nine months of 2021, US imports of processed fruit and vegetable products reached 7.4 billion USD, up 17% over the same period in 2020.
Vietnam was the 11th largest supplier of processed fruits and vegetables to the US in the first nine months of 2021, with a turnover of 171.9 million USD, up 49.9% over the same period in 2020. The proportion of imports from Vietnam accounted for 2.3% of total import value, up 0.5 percentage points over the same period in 2020.
During the first nine months of 2021, the US imported fruit, nuts, and other edible parts of plants, prepared or preserved (HS 2008), and fruit juices (including grape must) and vegetable juices, unfermented and not containing added spirits, whether or not containing added sugar or other sweeteners (HS 2009), with value accounting for the highest proportion.
The US imports these two types of fruit mainly from the markets of Mexico, Thailand, China and Canada. These are also the two main categories that Vietnam supplies to the US market. In which, the import value of HS 2008 reached 10.9 million USD, up 2.6% over the same period in 2020; and the import value of HS 2009 reached 7.6 million USD, up 111.4% over the same period in 2020. The proportion of these two types of imports from Vietnam only accounts for 4% of the total import value of these two types of the US.
The growth rate of US imports of processed fruit and vegetables from Vietnam is high, showing that Vietnam's processed fruit and vegetable products are gradually meeting the requirements of US consumers.
However, the proportion of imports from Vietnam is still very low, so the opportunity for businesses to increase the export of processed fruits and vegetables to the US market is very large. In order to expand market share in the US, Vietnamese businesses should invest in modern processing lines to produce all kinds of processed fruits and vegetables according to the requirements of US consumers.
