The California Fresh Fruit Association, in collaboration with the US Mission in Vietnam and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), recently announced the launch of US peaches and nectarines in Vietnam. After five years of negotiations, Vietnam’s agricultural authority opened market access for the fruit and hailed the move as a “big win in trade relations.”
On August 13, 2024, the US Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) and the California Fresh Fruit Association (CFFA) hosted a “Kick-Off Launching Event,” celebrating the first batch of Californian peaches and nectarines arriving in Vietnam. The kick-off follows a July 2024 announcement from Vietnam’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) permitting the importation of US peaches and nectarines after five years of negotiations.
Vietnam is the 41st foreign market for California peaches with an estimated market value of over $2.5 million. California hosts the largest peach production of any US state, with a 2022 harvest yield ten times more than that of Georgia. California is also the only US state allowed to export peaches and nectarines to Vietnam as its fruit shippers demonstrated the ability to satisfy Vietnam’s strict production and packing protocols. In the Vietnamese market, Californian peaches are expected to compete with the long-dominating Chinese and recent Australian equivalents.
Increasing agriculture trade with Vietnam is of bipartisan interest, and USDA had worked to gain market access for apples, cherries, grapes, pears, blueberries, oranges, and grapefruit, resulting in a footfall of $104.97 million worth of fruit exports to Vietnam in 2023. Under the Trump administration, the United States reached an agreement allowing dried grains, corn, and wheat exports to Vietnam. In April 2023, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack visited Vietnam and called upon the country to further enhance agricultural cooperation. The visit resulted in MARD opening market access for US fruits, most notably peaches, in a move hailed as a “big win in trade relations” on MARD’s daily publication Nông Nghiệp (Agriculture News).
Upon Vietnam’s market access announcement, California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) Secretary Karen Ross will visit Vietnam in September to “meet with government officials, importers, and distributors to celebrate the success of the California tree fruit industry and expand ongoing collaboration.” CDFA reports that Vietnam was California’s 12th largest export destination in 2022, with top exports including pistachios, dairy, almonds, and grapes valued at $336 million. California has also increased agricultural research and trade cooperation with Vietnam. Since 2006, the Vietnam National University of Agriculture (VNUA) maintains Bioengineering and Crop Science joint programs with the University of California, Davis (UC Davis). In 2022, VNUA also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the University of California, Riverside (UCR) initially focusing on faculty and student exchange and expectation of a future joint degree program in biotechnology, engineering, and business administration. At a government-to-government level, CDFA Undersecretary Christine Birdsong and Deputy Minister of MARD Trần Thanh Nam signed an MoU in May 2024 focusing on shared opportunities around climate, trade, and research collaboration keeping in mind government, academia, and agricultural sector stakeholders. The two agriculture authorities also agreed to share information on key agricultural issues, such as climate, agricultural technology, and plant and animal health.
USDA also supports a public diplomacy initiative named “United Tastes” (Mỹ Vị Hoa Kỳ in Vietnamese), a wordplay that means “delicacy” or “taste of America” (Mỹ in Vietnamese). United Tastes highlights US agricultural products, such as Wisconsin cheese, Washington State apples, and Californian wine; and adaptations of US ingredients into Vietnamese dishes through robust social media presence and public events. In the September 2023 announcement of the US-Vietnam Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, President Joe Biden and Vietnamese leader Nguyen Phu Trong emphasized the deepening of bilateral trade, investment, and economic cooperation, especially via expanding agricultural trade. The readout highlighted market access for US grapefruits and Vietnamese pomelos, concluding with “ the two countries anticipate market access for additional agricultural products will soon follow.” Californian peaches are the latest US agricultural product to enter the Vietnamese market, but certainly not the last.
Sam Tran is a Summer 2024 Young Professional at the East-West Center in Washington. He graduated from the University of Massachusetts Amherst with a B.A. in Political Science in May 2024.