Of the total five tonnes exported on June 18, the remaining four tonnes are being transported by sea. Upon their arrival in Japan, the Vietnamese lychee will be put on shelves at AEON supermarkets and at focal points of importers including VIENT Corporation, Yufruit and Sunrise Farm.

En route to admitting Vietnamese lychee into Japan, the two sides spent a long time, from 2014, organising lychee promotions in the Japanese market and introducing technologies in fresh lychee preservation, steam treatment, sterilisation and transportation. The inspection process was conducted in a strict manner under the supervision of authorities from both sides.

Vietnamese trade counsellor in Japan Ta Duc Minh said that the Japanese market is not a large lychee importer, but it still has great development potential as most Japanese consumers are not familiar or do not know much about lychee, its taste or how to eat it.

The first batch of fresh Vietnamese lychee lands in Japan. (Photo: VOV)

He stressed the extreme need to enhance the promotion of Vietnamese lychee to Japanese people so that they may learn more about such a tasty fruit.

Because lychee harvest takes place over a relatively short period of time, the volume of fruit exported in a single season is not very significant. Therefore, manufacturers need to consider products with deep processing and added value, such as frozen lychee, fresh lychee juice, lychee jelly or other products made from lychee, Minh stated.

It is expected that nearly 200 tonnes of fresh Vietnamese lychee will be exported to the Japanese market this year. To ensure the volume of goods, the Vietnamese trade office in Japan has been coordinating with some Japanese import focal points, such as AEON, VIENT Corporation, Yufruit, and Sunrise Farm, and some Vietnamese export focal points, including Red Dragon, Chanh Thu and Ameii, to continue promoting the export of lychee shipments to Japan.