Vietnamese still struggle to export lychees to Australia

On June 2, processors shipped the first shipment by air from the current season, which amounted to just 1.2 tons of product, said by Le Nhat Thanh, director of the Plant Protection Department.

It’s the first for the 2017 lychee harvest, which will last until the middle of July, Mr Thanh noted.

Consignments of lychees are permitted by air or sea freight to Australia and must be inspected upon arrival, added Mr Thanh.

Head of the Australian Lychee Growers Association, Derek Foley, from Electra, Queensland, said he was not worried about Vietnamese imports competing with local fruit.

We're not against the import of lychees, it won't clash with our season, which is around Christmas, said Mr Foley.

Australian lychee growers would like to see decent quality lychees coming into Australia. We're only asking for the protocol to be irradiation and reciprocal arrangements for Vietnam to import fruit from Australia.

The Australia lychee industry isn’t worth all that much, as estimates put the annual value at about US$20 million of sales.

This is the second year Vietnamese lychee has been accepted by Australia after last year finally managing to meet Australian market standards for packaging, labelling and radiation treatment.