HANOI: Việt Nam can fully meet Qatar’s demand for tropical fruits, said Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) Nguyễn Xuân Cường. During a meeting with Belgian Rent-A-Port N.V. held last week, Cường said Việt Nam had 1.8 million hectares of cultivation area for fruits and vegetables with an annual output of 20 million tonnes, adding that the figure would double in the future if demand increases. In 2017, vegetable and fruit export revenue hit US$3.6 billion, up by 50 per cent over the previous year. In the future, Việt Nam will construct and put into operation 10 more fruit and vegetable processing factories across the country, he was quoted by MARD’s e-portal mard.gov.vn. Rent-A-Port is the “port-related” investment and management arm of the Belgian Holding Ackermans & van Haaren, which was founded in 1885 and is one of the largest stock-listed holding companies of Belgium, with assets of 2.7 billion euro ($3.2 billion). Rent-A-Port operates as an engineering and investment company that analyses, designs, constructs, develops, and manages port, logistics, marine infrastructure, and industrial zones worldwide. The company is helping Việt Nam and India promote fruit and vegetable exports to Middle East countries, starting with Qatar. Therefore, except from the current key exported fruits, Cường asked Rent-A-Port to learn more about other types, such as bananas, grapefruit, dragon fruit and mango.
