The first litchi of northern Hải Dương and Bắc Giang provinces have been shipped by sea to the US to be sold at Safeway and Albertsons, two supermarket chains with the largest network on the US West Coast. It is a result of the efforts by the Vietnamese Consulate General in San Francisco in bringing Vietnamese products to foreign distribution systems that started early this year.
A representative from US Dragonberry Produce, the distributor of Vietnamese litchi in the US, said that two other containers of litchi were also on their way to the US. The fruit would continue to be sold in the two supermarket chains with a price tag of US$4.99 for each bag of 430 grams.
High air transport costs made Vietnamese litchi less competitive in the market. This is the reason why the export of litchi to the US has been modest while the fruit has been accepted in the market since 2014.
Source: einnews.com