The Chinese grapes, oranges, and pomegranates that are being sold rampantly across Vietnam are imported to the country at throwaway prices of less than half a dollar.

>> Chinese apples flood city markets Chinese fruits account for 20 to 30 percent of the 3,000 tons of fruits and vegetables that arrive at Ho Chi Minh City’s Thu Duc fruit wholesale market on a daily basis, according to market managers. Here, a ton of apples or pears grown in China’s Yunnan province costs USD .16, or a mere VND3,400 a kg, according to a customs declaration Tuoi Tre obtained from T., a fruit wholesaler who imported six tons of apples and seven tons of pears in late September. T. added that other Chinese fruits share the dirt cheap prices. Pomegranate fetches VND3,700 a kg, and orange, the most ‘expensive’, only costs VND6,000 a kg. “Those prices have been fixed for months,” he said, when asked why the good-looking fruits are so cheap. However, T. has to resell the fruits at higher prices due to the VND30 million transport cost per truck from the border gates, and other expenses, he added.Abundant supply Dr Luong Ngoc Trung, from the Southern Fruit Research Institute, said Chinese fruit are being imported for dirt cheap prices because it is now the harvest season in China. The fruits are grown in huge areas, and China’s domestic market cannot consume the massive supply from the crops, he said. “As the fruits are not high quality, and thus cannot compete with fruits from other countries in the high quality market, China chooses to ship the fruits to easy markets that they border such as Vietnam, Laos, or Cambodia at throwaway prices,” he said. Chinese fruits are not subject to import and value-added taxes under a trade policy agreement between China and Vietnam, as stated on their customs declarations. Most of the imported batches do not undergo pesticide residue tests, and customs officers only check them visually. Consequently, four samples of Chinese fruits were found to contain excessive amounts of plant protection drugs from August 10 to September 10, according to the Plant Protection Agency. They include a sample of plums which exceeded the limited amount of carbendazim, two samples of grapes with excessive difenoconazone content, and one pomegranate whose tubeconazone and carbendazim contents were higher than the allowed rate. Earlier the agency also detected an amount of pesticide residue in Chinese grapes and potatoes imported between July 10 and August 10 that was three to five times higher than what is allowed.