Vietnamese pink fabric with red flag and yellow star trademark arrives in UK

One ton of Vietnamese early-ripening lychee (Lychee with pink blossoms) has just been imported into the UK by TT Meridian Company, becoming the first official lychee export from Vietnam to the UK this year.

Pink fabric with the Vietnamese flag brand. (Source: VNA)

Mr. Thai Tran, CEO of TT Meridian Company, a company specializing in distributing lychees and Vietnamese agricultural products in the UK, said that this year, the company imported U Hong lychees for the first time to take advantage of the lychee variety's advantage of ripening about 1 month earlier than lychees to compete with Mexican and Chinese lychees currently sold in the UK market.

The shipment of pink lychees will be distributed to Asian and local supermarkets. The company expects to import 3-5 tons of lychees to the UK each week, depending on demand.

According to Mr. Thai, Meridian Center imports lychees before those from Mexico and China are harvested and imported to the UK in order to tap into the market early, creating an opportunity for Vietnamese lychees, with their good quality, sweet taste, and aroma, to reach and win over consumers in the UK.

In particular, the lychee products distributed in the UK market this year feature packaging with the image of the Vietnamese flag (red with a yellow star) to help British consumers recognize the national brand and create the impression that lychees are a unique specialty of Vietnam.

Mr. Thai shared: "Starting this year, Meridian will use packaging featuring the Vietnamese flag (red with a yellow star) on Vietnamese products distributed in the UK to build and promote the Vietnamese brand as a major producer and exporter of agricultural products in the world , helping consumers easily and quickly identify Vietnamese products on supermarket shelves in the UK."

The initiative to identify Vietnamese brands through the image of the red flag with a yellow star is one of the efforts of Meridian Center and its partners in Vietnam, including Kim Bien Fruit Processing Cooperative ( Bac Giang ), to innovate and create, meeting the constantly changing needs of the market as well as consumer habits and behavior.

According to Mr. Nguyen Canh Cuong, Trade Counselor, Vietnam Trade Office in the UK, a big challenge for exporting Vietnamese lychees to the UK is product preservation due to the nature of lychees that must be consumed within 3 days of harvest to ensure freshness, so export enterprises need to master post-harvest preservation technology.

Compared to similar imported products and other imported fruits, Vietnamese lychees currently have a relatively high selling price in the UK (15 pounds/kg, equivalent to 435,000 VND).

According to Mr. Cuong, the high price of lychees is partly due to the fact that this fruit must be transported by air at a cost of 3-4 pounds/kg to ensure freshness. Mr. Cuong believes that mastering preservation technology will allow exporting businesses to transport lychees by sea, helping to reduce product prices.

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