Vietnam's Fruit and Vegetable Exports Hit Record $1.37 Billion in August as Year Heads Toward $10 Billion
Vietnam exported $1.37 billion of fruit and vegetables in August 2026, the highest monthly figure on record and a sixth consecutive month of growth, according to Customs Department data cited by nongnghiepmoitruong.vn. China took $1.06 billion of that and 63% of eight-month shipments. Industry bodies expect full-year exports of approximately $10 billion.
Vietnam's fruit and vegetable exports reached $1.37 billion in August 2026, the highest monthly total ever recorded by the sector, according to Customs Department data cited by nongnghiepmoitruong.vn. The figure was 27.6% above July 2026 and 44.5% above August 2025, surpassing the previous peak of $1.31 billion set in September 2025. August was also the sixth consecutive month of growth.
Cumulative figures differ between reports. nongnghiepmoitruong.vn put exports for the first eight months of 2026 at more than $6.15 billion, up 27.7% year on year, while elsewhere citing approximately $5.87 billion, up 21.8%, and a separate figure of $6.02 billion at which fruit and vegetables overtook coffee among Vietnam's farm exports. nhandan.vn reported more than $5.8 billion for the same period.
China absorbs 63% of shipments
Shipments to China reached $1.06 billion in August, up 36.9% from July and 56.7% year on year, according to nongnghiepmoitruong.vn. It was only the second month in which Vietnamese fruit and vegetable sales to China passed $1 billion, matching the earlier monthly record of $1.066 billion. Over eight months China bought more than $3.87 billion, an increase of 38.8% and equal to 63% of the sector's export revenue.
Other leading destinations over the first eight months of 2026:
- United States: $428 million, up 17.9%
- South Korea: $233 million, up 9.7%
- Japan: $173 million, up 5.8%
- Netherlands: $152 million, up 38.2%
Durian carries the value, coconut moves into second place
Durian remains the main driver. Customs data cited by nhandan.vn show July durian exports of $681.2 million, up 81% year on year, lifting the seven-month total to about $1.77 billion, up 47.1%. The surge coincided with the start of harvesting in the Central Highlands growing areas.
Coconut is the fastest-rising item, with exports of $367.446 million in the first seven months of 2026, around 20% more than a year earlier, moving it past dragon fruit and mango into second place behind durian. Nguyễn Thị Kim Thanh, chairwoman of the Vietnam Coconut Association, said the product still has room to grow in the closing months of the year as markets widen and exporters make better use of value-added processing.
Clearance times, compliance and regional competition
In the European Union, Vietnam was the 23rd largest supplier of fruit and vegetables from outside the bloc in the first half of 2026, with EU imports from the country rising 26%, according to Eurostat data cited by nongnghiepmoitruong.vn. Vietnam's share of EU extra-bloc fruit and vegetable imports rose from 0.81% in the first half of 2025 to 1.0%, helped by a marked fall in chemical residue alerts on the EU notification portal and a shift toward deeply processed tropical products. China regulates growing areas and packing facilities through a code system, so faster issuance of codes is needed to expand official-channel capacity, while the United States, the EU and Japan require tighter food safety and phytosanitary control. Lê Anh Dũng, general director of Vegetexco Vietnam, said the company sells in around 60 countries and links raw material areas with its own processing facilities.
Competition on delivery speed is intensifying. The Import-Export Department of the Ministry of Industry and Trade reported that Cambodian fruit exports to China rose sharply after a cross-border agricultural transport corridor through Laos opened in late June 2026, combining road haulage into Laos with the China-Laos railway and cutting delivery times to about one week from 15-20 days by sea. Cambodian durian exports to China reached a record 5,738 tonnes in the first seven months of 2026, close to 40 times the volume shipped in all of 2025. Since July 2026, Vietnam's Customs Department has instructed its units to clear agricultural exports within the day, including outside office hours and on weekends and public holidays.
Fourth-quarter supply and the $10 billion target
September and October mark the late-season peak of the durian harvest in the Central Highlands, when almost no other producing country has fresh durian available, leaving Vietnam as effectively the sole supplier to China. November and December bring higher holiday demand in China, South Korea, Japan, Europe and North America, with dragon fruit, fresh coconut, passion fruit, pomelo, mango and dried, frozen and canned products expected to offset the post-peak decline. Nguyễn Thanh Bình, chairman of the Vietnam Fruit and Vegetable Association, said full-year exports should reach approximately $10 billion. Đặng Phúc Nguyên, the association's secretary general, said revenue had stayed above $1 billion for two consecutive months for the first time, citing about $1.09 billion for August, up 14.6%, and about $1.07 billion for July.
