Le Van Thiet, deputy director of Plant Protection Department at Vietnam's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, said Vietnamese passion fruit exports have just been approved for China, with pilot shipments to Guangdong from Lang Son and Quang Ninh provinces, according to Vietnamese media.  
   
More than 80% of the world's passion fruit crop is produced in South America each year, with Brazil, Peru, Colombia and Ecuador among the world's leading passion fruit exporters.  In the past five years, Vietnamese passion fruit production and export value increased by more than 300%, making it one of the 10 most valuable fruit trees exported from Vietnam.  
   
Vietnam's passion fruit production is expected to reach 135,000 tonnes this year, mainly in Gia Lai and Dak Lak provinces.  Gia Lai province has just listed passion fruit as one of the four key fruit trees in the region and plans to grow 20,000 hectares of fruit by 2025, making it the largest producer of passion fruit in Vietnam.  
   
At present, Vietnamese passion fruit has been exported to France, Germany, the Netherlands, South Korea, Taiwan(China), Switzerland and other markets.  In 2020, Vietnam and China began to negotiate on the access of passion fruit, and after nearly two years of preparation, it was finally approved to export to China.  
   
In recent years, with the rapid development of domestic beverage and new tea market, the demand for passion fruit products is also increasing.  At present, China only allows fresh passion fruit imports from Thailand and Laos, according to information released by the General Administration of Customs.  Vietnam is expected to become one of the major producers of imported passion fruit after the official export of Vietnam passion fruit to China.  
   
The Plant Protection Department of Vietnam's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development also revealed that The export of durian from Vietnam to China is in the final stage and is expected to be exported to the Chinese market within this year.  
   
China has long been Vietnam's largest durian export market, accounting for about 70% of the country's durian production.  Without official access from China, Vietnamese durians have been exported to China through border trade or under the guise of Thai durians.  In early 2019, China stepped up inspections on fruit trade in its border trade with Vietnam, requiring Vietnamese fruit to enter China through formal trade channels, which hampered durian exports from Vietnam.  Vietnam completed animal and plant quarantine negotiations on exporting durian to China in February and is now waiting for remote inspections of plantations and packaging plants.  
   
Durian cultivation in Vietnam is mainly concentrated in the southern and central high altitude areas, with an annual output of about 600,000 tons.  Durian in Vietnam is mainly harvested from April to the end of July, followed by October to march. Varieties include Ri6 and Muangthong.