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Second fruit irradiation plant certified
Vietnam’s second fruit irradiation plant Tuesday received certification from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to treat fruit bound for the American market.
The An Phu Irradiation Joint Stock Company (API) said it received the U.S. clearance the same day the irradiation plant, in the southern province of Binh Duong Province, became operational.
API’s irradiation plant is able to sterilize about 30,000 tons of fruit a year, company director Vuong Dinh Khoat said. The company will charge about US$1 a kilogram for its fruit irradiation service, Khoat said, the same price as the existing fruit irradiation plant.
API expects its main business over the next few years will be treating U.S.-bound dragon fruit, rambutans, lychees and longans, he told Saigon Times newspaper.
Until API’s plant opened, Son Son Joint-Stock Company was Vietnam’s only U.S.-licensed irradiation service provider.
Vietnam won approval to export dragon fruit to the U.S. last year.
Nearly 28 tons of Vietnamese dragon fruit was exported to the U.S. in the first half of this year, including 10 tons that was shipped by sea.
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