Shipments to the Middle East Stretched from 3 Weeks to 4; a Vietnamese Fruit Factory Named India as a Candidate

The Vietnamese fruit-processing company Agriviet (Agriviet Factory, corporate name Cong ty TNHH Nha May Nong San Viet Nam) named India, the Philippines, and Singapore as candidates for new sales channels for dragon fruit. The company's Le Quang Nguon told FreshPlaza so, in an article published on September 24, 2026. The Middle East route has gone from "about three weeks before" to "about four weeks now," shaving the time to sell off fresh produce after arrival. The original text writes that the move to look for new buyers is "partly a response" to this difficulty on the Middle East route. The order in which the Vietnamese supply side is reshuffling its buyers becomes a premise when Japanese raw-material buyers draw up their sourcing plans.

Toward the Middle East, from three weeks to four, yet shipments have not stopped

Two to three containers a week are moving; what shrank is the time to sell off

Nguon cited two figures. The transit time was about three weeks before and is about four weeks now. The frequency, toward the Middle East, is two to three containers a week, and both are current actuals, not planned figures. His own explanation is that since the war disrupted the existing routes, shipping to the Middle East has become difficult.

Still, the one-week extension has not led to a halt in shipments. In his own words, "the transit increasing by a week is not necessarily a factor big enough to stop shipments." What bites is after the goods reach port: the remaining shelf-life days of the fresh produce grow shorter, and the margin to sell off locally thins. It is an expression amounting to shelf life becoming a little more troublesome.

Guava is running into competition and low prices in the Middle East

Overlapping with the phase of lengthened transit, price movements in the existing market are also squeezing the company. Vietnamese guava, which is centered on the Middle East, faces strong competition and low prices. Asked whether it would improve within a few weeks, Nguon answered that he does not expect a near-term change.

What provides support is long-standing buyers. Holding trading partners of many years is explained as leading to a degree of stability even under these conditions.

The move to India is not yet shipment but at the stage of a candidate for talks

Three destinations under consideration, alongside the Philippines and Singapore

The three raised as new markets are the Philippines, India, and Singapore. The original text's phrasing is "destinations it is considering," and it does not say shipments have begun. Of these, regarding India, Nguon positions it as "of particular interest for dragon fruit" and adds that there may be an opportunity for longan as well.

The policy Nguon laid out goes only as far as developing new customers within Asia—because there is a limit to the transit days fresh produce can withstand—while also continuing with existing customers in China and the Middle East. He did not say he had shifted Middle East volume to India.

Plans to make contact after the Hong Kong trade fair

The timing of contact is also spoken of in the future tense. Nguon expects to connect with Indian customers after Asia Fruit Logistica, held at Hong Kong's AsiaWorld-Expo on September 2–4. At the time of the interview it was before any talks, and pinning down volumes and terms is a stage still to come.

At this trade fair, 22 companies set up 24 booths under the coordination of the Vietnam Fruit and Vegetable Association, and the destinations the Vietnamese side named were India and the Middle East. 22 Vietnamese firms at Hong Kong's Asia Fruit show: the names of partners moving beyond China As covered in it, this is not the decision of Agriviet alone. Acceptance on the India side is also moving, and fresh durian was opened up under a plant-quarantine rule revision dated July 13, 2026 (Vietnamese durian: India's opening punches a hole in its 95% dependence on China). Dragon fruit is not an item waiting to be opened up; the former article also touches on how its volume toward India and the Middle East has been growing.

How much has transit around the Red Sea fallen since 2023

Suez's container ships remain stuck at half their autumn-2023 level

The scale of the "existing routes disrupted by war" that Nguon speaks of can be confirmed with measured vessel data. The IMF's PortWatch publishes the daily number of transits through major chokepoints based on AIS (Automatic Identification System) signals. The following table smooths the data's daily values into monthly averages and shows the number of vessels per day limited to container ships.

Comparing November 2023 with August 2026, Suez fell from 19.5 vessels to 9.3 and Bab el-Mandeb from 18.7 to 4.5, while, conversely, transit around the Cape of Good Hope rose from 5.6 to 18.4. The diversion that occurred in early 2024 had not reverted even by August 2026. Because rounding the southern tip of Africa adds distance, a transit increase of about a week is not inconsistent with the vessels' movements.

For the Gulf and for the Red Sea, the affected leg differs

Still, lumping "toward the Middle East" together leads to a misreading. On the map, ships entering Red Sea-coast ports such as Jeddah pass through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, but Gulf ports such as Jebel Ali and Dammam take a route from the Strait of Malacca to the Indian Ocean and through the Strait of Hormuz, without passing through the Red Sea. Nguon's explanation only says "toward the Middle East," and the destination port is not specified.

Even toward the Gulf, direct sailings have decreased because mainline routes were diverted to the Cape of Good Hope, and a transshipment may be inserted. Each added transshipment puts the waiting time at the hub straight onto the number of days. What the buyer should confirm is the substance: whether the quoted vessel is direct or involves transshipment, and if transshipment, at which port and for how many days.

How can Japanese buyers use this one-week delay

The shelf-life problem disappears for dried, frozen, or juice forms

Agriviet is not a fresh-only company. The product categories on its own website divide into six: fresh fruit, fresh vegetables, juice, frozen goods, dried goods, and value-added products. The factory is in Dong Thap province and has, from the start, production lines for forms where shelf life need not be a concern.

Where Japanese food manufacturers can more easily find a point of contact is this processing side. Shipping fresh dragon fruit to Japan carries heavy quarantine and freshness constraints, but dried, frozen, juice, and puree forms ride ordinary ambient or frozen logistics. Across Vietnam's fruit exports as a whole, the growing items have shifted toward the processed side, and dragon fruit, mango, and banana—once the fresh mainstays—turned to year-on-year declines in the January–July 2026 tally (Cashew up 111% draws level with dragon fruit: Vietnam's fruit exports reshuffle). The harder fresh shipping becomes to predict, the more positive the supply side becomes about processing.

When the India channel starts up, grading and packing capacity fills up first

Another point becomes a matter of order. India has a large population, and once trading begins it is a market where volume comes together easily. If a factory like Agriviet begins regular shipments to India, other destinations using the same grading house and the same packing line will find it harder to secure capacity in the busy season. Small lots for Japan are easily pushed back.

If talks with India are still a stage away, September to October—right after the trade fair—is a window where room to take on new business remains. A buyer that pins down terms at this same timing is less likely to be disadvantaged in line allocation. Reach out only after the India channel is on track, and you will start from the back of the queue on both price and delivery.

If you approach Agriviet, what to confirm first

This is as far as the publicly available company information goes

What the company discloses on its site and on FreshPlaza is as follows.

If you narrow the action you can take by October to one

The counterpart appears in the interview as a fresh-produce exporter, so if you bring up processed goods, you first need to confirm in which forms and how much they can run per year. Fresh export volume and processing-line capacity are separate numbers. As for ISO 22000:2018 too, in contract food work the usual procedure is to confirm the issuing body, scope, and validity period from a copy of the certificate.

On that basis, if we name one first action to take, it is to get a quote for processed goods rather than fresh. Inquire—for forms such as dried dragon fruit, frozen puree, and concentrated juice—about the minimum lot, the annual supply capacity, and whether they can prepare the documents required for Japan. For a processing inquiry, a one-week delay is not a factor in negotiating terms, and it is also easier for the supply side to accept. What is disclosed goes only as far as the candidate stage for India, and the two to three containers a week toward the Middle East continue in parallel. Reading this stage as "shifted to India" leads to a misestimate of spare supply capacity.

Sources

• FreshPlaza, "Vietnamese dragon fruit looks to India as Middle East shipping slows" (September 24, 2026)— freshplaza.com
• Agriviet Factory official site (company overview, product categories, contact details)— agrivietfactory.com
• IMF PortWatch, "Daily Chokepoints Data" (daily transit counts derived from AIS)— portwatch.imf.org
• ASIA FRUIT LOGISTICA official release (2026: September 2–4, AsiaWorld-Expo)— asiafruitlogistica.com