After more than 2 years of pilot import, in mid-April 2025, the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment officially signed the Protocol on exporting passion fruit to the Chinese market.

Strict food safety conditions must be met

In 2016, the Plant Protection Department (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development), now the Department of Crop Production and Plant Protection (Ministry of Agriculture and Environment), initiated negotiations to open the export market to China.

After nearly 6 years, the two sides have actively coordinated to promote the process of pest risk analysis and information exchange to reach an agreement on plant quarantine requirements for passion fruit imported into China. By 2022, the General Administration of Customs of China (GACC) had issued a document agreeing to pilot import of Vietnamese passion fruit starting from early July 2022.

By mid-April 2025, passion fruit officially signed the Export Protocol to the Chinese market. Talking to reporters of the Industry and Trade Newspaper, a representative of the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment said that the conditions for exporting passion fruit to the Chinese market are quite strict.

Accordingly, all passion fruit growing areas and packaging facilities that want to export to China must be registered with the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment and approved by both the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment and the General Administration of Customs of China.

Under the supervision of the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, all growing areas registered for export to China must establish a quality management and traceability system, apply Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) and ensure sanitary conditions such as maintaining a good production environment away from sources of pollution, promptly removing fallen and rotten fruits. An integrated pest management (IPM) program must be applied, including regular pest monitoring, physical, chemical or biological control and other pest prevention and control measures. According to International Standard for Phytosanitary Measures No. 6 (ISPM 6), the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment must implement a management program to monitor the growing area for species that are subject to plant quarantine in the growing area of ​​interest to China (during the entire passion fruit production season).

To monitor and collect pests, in addition to visual inspection, some physical and chemical measures will be applied in the growing area such as: using pheromone traps or yellow sticky traps to monitor fruit flies (Bactrocera correcta,), mealybugs (Planococcus minor, Pseudococcus longispinus) on fruits, branches, stems and leaves. If disease symptoms (Lasiodiplodia theobromae and Globisporangium splendens) are detected, samples must be taken and sent to the laboratory for identification.

If species that are subject to plant quarantine that are of interest to China are detected, control measures must be applied immediately. All growing areas must be kept Pest control and monitoring records, which will be provided to the General Department of Customs upon request.

Not only the growing area, the export passion fruit packaging facility must also meet strict standards. Accordingly, there must be a clean, hygienic hard floor, a raw material storage area and a finished product warehouse. Registered packaging facilities must establish a traceability system to ensure that passion fruit exported to China can be traced back to the registered growing areas, including records of processing and packaging dates, growing area names or codes, raw material import volume, export date, export volume, destination country, container number and other information; ...

During the packaging process, passion fruit must be selected, sorted and cleaned to remove diseased fruits, insects, rotten, deformed fruits, leaves, stems or other plant residues, then the fruit surface must be cleaned with an air gun or high-pressure water gun ...

The passion fruit packaging material must be clean, hygienic, unused and comply with China's plant health and hygiene requirements. Wood packaging materials must comply with International Standard for Phytosanitary Measures No. 15 (ISPM 15). If preservation is required, passion fruit must be stored in a separate warehouse immediately after packaging to prevent contamination by pests.

Each box must be labeled in Chinese or English, including the fruit name, variety, exporting country, place of production, name or code of the growing area, name or code of the packing facility, etc.

In the first year from the date of entry into force of this Protocol, officers of the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment must conduct plant quarantine inspections and take 2% samples. If no violations of plant quarantine are detected in this first year, the sampling rate will be reduced to 1%.

If live quarantine objects, leaves or soil are found, the entire consignment cannot be exported to China. In some cases, the growing area and/or the relevant packing facility will not be allowed to export passion fruit to China for the remainder of the season. The Ministry of Agriculture and Environment will investigate the cause and take effective remedial measures. At the same time, records of the detection of quarantine objects must be kept and provided upon request by the China Customs.

After the quarantine work is completed, the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment will issue a Phytosanitary Certificate for the consignment approved in accordance with International Standard for Phytosanitary Measures No. 12 (ISPM 12), which shows the registration name or growing area code and packing facility code….

Production in series, meeting quality requirements

In recent years, Vietnam has focused on improving quality, producing in chains, ensuring traceability of passion fruit, focusing on two varieties of yellow passion fruit and purple passion fruit. The soil has helped passion fruit grown in Vietnam have world-class quality and are loved by consumers in demanding culinary markets. Vietnam is one of the countries that grow the most passion fruit in the world.

In 2024, passion fruit export turnover reached over 44.3 million USD. Mr. Huynh Tan Dat - Director of the Department of Cultivation and Plant Protection (Ministry of Agriculture and Environment) - said that Vietnamese passion fruit is currently being exported to 20 countries and territories around the world, including many "difficult" markets such as Korea, the Netherlands, France... in many forms such as fresh fruit, frozen fruit, juice.

The area of ​​passion fruit cultivation in our country is increasing, with an area of ​​more than 12,000 hectares, mainly concentrated in the northern mountainous region. Currently, passion fruit is also being interested in and expanded by many provinces in the Central Highlands.

Talking to reporters of the Industry and Trade Newspaper, Mr. Dang Phuc Nguyen - General Secretary of the Vietnam Fruit and Vegetable Association - said that in recent years, purchasing and processing enterprises have also actively participated in the closed value chain, to ensure the traceability of passion fruit, ensuring export criteria. The signing of the Protocol with China Customs opens up great opportunities for expanding the production and export of passion fruit to this billion-people market.

“It is expected that after signing the Protocol, passion fruit exports will double compared to the previous period, thereby contributing to the total export turnover of vegetables and fruits of Vietnam,” said Mr. Dang Phuc Nguyen.

Currently, the world market has high demand, so 80% of our country's fresh and processed passion fruit output has been exported. Accordingly, Vietnam is in the Top countries producing and exporting passion fruit in the world, just behind Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.

Source: Cong Thuong Newspaper