HA NOI (VNS) — Quarantine agencies of Viet Nam and South Korea have agreed on food hygiene and safety standards for fresh strawberries from Korea, allowing Korea to export the fruit to Viet Nam.

According to the Korea Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs yesterday, Korean strawberries were expected to be exported to Viet Nam from the beginning of next month.

The quarantine agencies of the two sides had closely worked on this issue since 2008.

In order to export fresh strawberries to Viet Nam, Korean firms must supply documents showing a registration of address, plantation process, and strawberry classification, along with quarantine certificates from the Vietnamese side.

The Korean ministry said that a draft instruction and export quarantine process for unripe strawberries would be issued. In addition, the ministry began receiving registration forms from Korean enterprises for the exports.

The Korean ministry expected its strawberry to export to Viet Nam and other Southeast Asian markets which were currently dominated by imports from the United States and Egypt.

The ministry's statistics showed that Korea sold more than 3.3 million tonnes of fresh strawberry to 20 countries and territories, including Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore, last year.

At a recent meeting, Viet Nam's Plant Protection Department said that the country set up import standards from 13 agro-forestry products from seven countries, including apples and pears from Holland, grapes, oranges and mandarins from Australia, and oranges, lemons and mandarins from Egypt.