Chinese fruit, notorious for the use of chemical preservatives, is being sold in large quantities in the country under the guise of fruit from Vietnamese orchards or imported from other countries.

An unidentified seller on Nguyen Thi Dinh Street near Hanoi’s Long Bien wholesale market says most of the fruit sold there originates from China, not from the US or New Zealand as many people think.

At this market that supplies fruit to retailers, cartons and labels are in Chinese script.

Customer Luu Hai An says the sellers assert very confidently that their products come from different regions in the country and the world, as most residents prefer to pack big, smooth and shiny fruit labeled as coming from the US or Thailand to gift friends and relatives.

Sellers agree, adding that if the fruit was truthfully labeled “Chinese,” it would take very long to sell them out.

Chinese fruit has been banned in many countries due to the use of toxic chemicals as preservatives, but health officials in Vietnam lack the expertise to track the chemicals, allowing the fruit to flood local markets.

At the Thu Duc wholesale market for agricultural produce in Ho Chi Minh City, Chinese fruit occupies the most space.

The HCMC Plant Protection Department once found traces of phosphorous and carbamate, chemicals used in pesticides, but could not identify the chemicals or quantify them.

Hai, a vendor at the Thu Duc market, last week imported 10 tons of fruit, 70 percent of it from China.

Nguyen Thi Nho, selling fruit nearby, said her counterparts at other wholesale markets imported 15-20 tons of fruit each time, mostly from China because the fruit remains fresh for much longer, sometimes kept in the booth for as long as a month.

Also, Chinese fruit is cheap compared to that grown domestically or imported from other countries.

Grapes imported from Australia are sold at more than VND100,000 (US$5.60) a kilogram and rot after a couple of days while Chinese grapes, at aroundVND80,000 ($4.50) a kilo, can be kept for a month.

Some sellers also said they have bought unnamed preservatives from China to spray on the fruit. A hundred kilos of fruit needs a packet of preservatives worth VND10,000.

Market vendors also say that HCMC is no longer the main market for Chinese fruit, having been overtaken by neighboring provinces.

Many vendors know that Chinese fruit contains much more preservatives and sweeteners than permitted, but continue selling them as they do not realize how toxic the chemicals are.

Customer concerns

A fruit vendor who wished to remain anonymous said the most toxic Chinese fruit sold in Vietnam is pear on sale now. She said pears on sale now were all harvested last year and only look fresh thanks to preservatives.

The Big C supermarket chain in the city sells Fuji apples and pears from China, but in very small quantities.

Duong Thi Quynh Trang, foreign affairs director of the chain, says they are not keen on selling Chinese fruit.

Tran Thanh Thuy, communication director of Metro supermarket chain, asserted that they sell genuine imports from the US, Australia and New Zealand.

They do sell Fuji apples from China but consumption is very slow, she said.

A District 3 resident said he no longer dares buy the beautiful pears, even to put on the altar. The pears that he had bought lately looked the same after four days, ten days, and even 20 days, he said.

“But when I cut them, it was dark brown at the core,” he said. “I had heard about Chinese fruit being kept fresh with preservatives but I did not believe it until now.”

Reported by Thanh Nien staff