A ton of Vietnamese persimmon litchi (early ripe lychee) has just been imported into the UK by TT Meridian Company, becoming the first official shipment of Vietnamese litchi to the UK this year.
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| Pink fabric with the brand identity of the Vietnamese flag. (Source: VNA) |
Mr. Thai Tran, CEO of TT Meridian Company, a business specializing in the distribution of Vietnamese lychee and agricultural products in the UK, said that this year, the company imported pink lychee for the first time to take advantage of this litchi variety, which is about a month earlier than lychee to compete with Mexican and Chinese lychees available in the UK market.
Lot of pink fabric will be distributed to Asian and local supermarkets. It is expected that each week the company will import 3-5 tons of lychee to the UK depending on consumption demand.
According to Mr. Thai, TT Meridian imported persimmon fabric before Mexican and Chinese lychees were harvested and imported to the UK in order to exploit the market early, creating opportunities for Vietnamese lychees with good quality, sweet and fragrant taste, to reach and conquer consumers in the UK.
In particular, the pink fabric product distributed in the UK market this year has a packaging bearing the image of a red flag with a yellow star of Vietnam to help British consumers identify the national brand, giving the impression that litchi is a special specialty of Vietnam.
Mr. Thai shared: “Starting this year, TT Meridian will use the packaging of Vietnamese products distributed in the UK with the image of a red flag with a yellow star to build and promote Vietnam's 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 Vietnam's brand through the image of a red flag with a yellow star is one of the efforts of TT Meridian and its partners in Vietnam, including Kim Bien Fruit Processing Cooperative (Bac Giang), in order to innovate, create, and meet the constantly changing needs of the market as well as consumer habits and behaviors."
According to Mr. Nguyen Canh Cuong, Commercial Counselor, Vietnam Trade Office in the UK, a big challenge for Vietnamese lychee exports to the UK is the preservation of products due to the characteristics of lychee fruits that must be consumed within 3 days from harvest to ensure freshness, so exporting businesses need to master post-harvest preservation technology.
Compared with imported products of the same type as well as other imported fruits, Vietnamese lychees currently have a high selling price in the UK (15 pounds/kg, equivalent to 435,000 VND).
According to Mr. Cuong, the high price of litchi is partly due to the fact that this fruit has to be transported by air at a cost of 3-4 pounds/kg to ensure freshness. Mr. Cuong said that mastering preservation technology will allow exporters to transport lychees by sea, helping to reduce product prices.
