China swaps Vietnamese watermelons for fruit from Laos

In the hot summer, the demand for watermelon in China is increasing. In order to meet the needs of consumers, many fruit merchants import watermelons from abroad.

In Vietnam, due to better geographical and climatic conditions, the quality of watermelons is good. Chinese fruit traders favor the low import prices and good quality of Vietnam's watermelons. Thus a large number of watermelons were imported from Vietnam.

But this year there's been a change. Since 2010, Vietnam has been the largest supplier of watermelon imports and 93%-98% of watermelons have been sourced from there.

However, in 2017, Laos began to attract foreign investment, and the fruit market and planting industry introduced many preferential policies. Chinese buyers pay attention to maximizing profits, so they started purchasing from Laos. In addition, Laos' labor force is very cheap and the land rent is relatively low. Renting land and growing watermelons here reduces much of the cost. Therefore, Chinese fruit merchants no longer import fruits from Vietnam, but import and grow various fruits from Laos.

Source: Tourism Vision