"Europe is attractive for Vietnamese fresh lychee trade, logistics remain key issue"

 The story goes that, once upon a time, the first lychee tree was planted in the Thanh Ha District of Hai Duong Province, Vietnam, over 200 years ago. Seedlings from the tree were brought back by fruit and vegetable trader Mr. Hoang Van Com from one of his business trips. He planted the seedlings and, because the local climate is so welcoming to lychees, all three seeds sprouted into trees. One of the three trees bore especially tasty fruits, and from this precious tree, its branches were extracted and propagated, which was the start of the regional lychee production.

Ameii''s team and customer in front of Thanh Ha District's first lychee tree

Mrs. Hue (Jolie), Export Manager at Ameii Viet Nam JSC, explains enthusiastically: “One of our company milestones, as a pioneer in our country, is that we were able to establish exports of fresh lychee to the most difficult markets such as Japan and Europe. We have a team of staff with many years of experience in the field of import and export. In addition to lychee, we trade durian and longan. Our key export markets are Japan, Korea, USA, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, Netherlands, Germany, France, and the Czech Republic. We ship both via air and sea transport".

After 10 days, this lychee skin color will change to a most beautiful red one

Ripe red lychees by Ameii Vietnam

Lychee trees full with ripe fruit

Mrs. Jolie continues: “Starting in late December 2019 and early 2020, due to Covid-19, shipping costs have increased two, three times, and even some schedules were raised by 8 times. Now we have to face the situation that shipping costs are higher than our production costs! This is one of the big challenges for our company's development strategy in building a brand in markets, especially distant Europe. However, we have been trying to bring the special flavor of Vietnamese agricultural products to our European partners. For example, the most recent order we have shipped to the European market is this year’s early lychee crop from May 2022. Positive reactions from our customers about its sweetness and quality are encouraging us to develop this market further.”

“Regarding weather and climate change, the weather is one of the important factors for all horticulture products and lychee production. This season, the climate has been strange, more unpredictable. We had a lot of rain, and it has also been cooler than usual. We even caught the cold air in the midsummer. This change in the weather might lead to a slight delay in the lychee harvest and we predicted that the lychee harvest could be about 10-15 days slower than the same period every year,” says Jolie

Packing line

Packed ripe lychees ready to be shipped

In 2021, Ameii Vietnam JSC was awarded one of the Top 10 Trusted Brands in Agriculture - Food - Beverage Industry Awards by the Vietnam Economic Times. “That is a huge honor for our company,” concludes Jolie.

Celebrating the Trusted Brands in Agriculture award ceremony

(Source: https://www.freshplaza.com/article/9434550/europe-is-attractive-for-vietnamese-fresh-lychee-trade-logistics-remain-key-issue/)