According to NhanDan, the Philippines was Japan's main banana supply market in the first seven months of this year, with the country's banana imports from the Philippines accounting for 79.8 percent of total imports.

However, under the Philippines-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (PJEPA), Japan's import duty on Philippine bananas has been as high as 13 percent annually, from 18 percent in winter to 8 percent in summer.

The Philippines is the only country in Southeast Asia with a high tax rate, while other suppliers enjoy preferential tariffs. Under the ASEAN-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (AJCEP), Japan's import duty on Vietnamese bananas will be reduced to zero from April 1, 2023, up from 3 percent previously.

It is worth noting that in addition to the tariff advantages, the economic and commercial counselor of the Vietnamese Embassy in Japan said that at present, many consumer systems in Japan want to import Vietnamese bananas. In the first seven months of this year, Japan imported 7,900 tons of bananas from Vietnam, with the import value reaching 1.05 billion yen (about 7.1 million US dollars), an increase of 62% in quantity and 80.2% in value year-on-year.

The share of Vietnamese bananas in Japan's imports is 1.3%. Therefore, the export potential of Vietnamese bananas to Japan is huge, which is conducive to expanding the share of Vietnamese enterprises in this market.