Texas Grapefruit Heading to Vietnam
27 September 2023, Texas: Wonderful Citrus is the largest fresh citrus grower, harvester, packer, and exporter in the Western United States, with offices in California and Texas. For many years, the company has worked with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) to grow its exports and make sure consumers across the globe can access citrus 365 days a year. When earlier this year, USDA, in cooperation with other government agencies, got Vietnam to open its market to U.S. grapefruit, the citrus exporter immediately saw a ripe new opportunity.
“Wonderful Citrus and our grower partners are excited for the opportunity to delve into the new market in Vietnam for our delicious and premium Sweet Scarletts Grapefruit from Texas,” said Zak Laffite, President of Wonderful Citrus.
Wonderful Citrus works with Texas farmers and harvesters to bring grapefruit from Texas to many markets around the world. The opening of a new grapefruit market in Vietnam is especially timely for Texas growers. “The Texas grapefruit industry is making a comeback after a devastating freeze that affected crops in 2021,” said Lafitte. “Given the resurgence of crops, it is important to focus on new market opportunities to sell Texas grapefruits, which will positively impact farmers and employment in the State.”
FAS and Wonderful Citrus have worked together for years on expanding trade opportunities for growers through the Market Access Program, which partners with U.S. agricultural trade associations, cooperatives, State regional trade groups, and small businesses to share the costs of overseas marketing and promotional activities that help build commercial export markets for U.S. agricultural products and commodities. Thus, Wonderful Citrus consistently reports multi-million-dollar sales annually.
Wonderful Citrus is one of the many grapefruit exporters who can now benefit from the Vietnam market being open to their product. The United States is one of the leading grapefruit-producing countries, with grapefruit exports reaching nearly $33 million in 2022.
The opening of the Vietnam market was the result of many years of dedicated work by USDA, other U.S. Government agencies, and private sector partners. USDA is dedicated to continuing to open new markets and strengthen existing relationships to expand export opportunities for U.S. food and agriculture producers.
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