In early July the US Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) granted the Toan Phat irradiation plant (TPI) in Tay Ninh province, Vietnam, approval to run two irradiation technologies, gamma rays and X-rays, in parallel. It is the first time in Vietnam that a fruit-irradiation facility for US-bound exports can use two technologies at once, a step that eases the bottleneck of quarantine treatment that concentrates in the harvest season. Dragon fruit, mango, pomelo and longan, the mainstay US-bound export items, require irradiation as an obligatory quarantine treatment, and that treatment capacity has itself set the ceiling on shipment volume. US-bound exports of green-skinned pomelo entered an expansion phase As with that, processing cannot keep up even when the market opens; a change is emerging in this structure. Even for Japanese fruit buyers who do not use the method of irradiation, it is news not to be missed as a turning point where the supply structure of Vietnamese fruit moves.
What was approved: an "electric source" was added to cobalt-60
TPI was originally APHIS-certified for gamma-ray irradiation using cobalt-60 as its source. Now X-ray irradiation has been added, giving it a setup that can run the two methods in parallel. The character of the sources is completely different. Whereas gamma rays use the decay of the radioactive isotope cobalt-60, X-rays are an electrically driven machine source, controllable by switching the device on and off, with no isotope replenishment or decay management involved.
This difference ties directly to operational flexibility. When you want to raise throughput at peak times, the electric X-ray is easier to plan for adding or reinforcing. In 2025 TPI processed about 5,670 tonnes of US-bound export fruit with gamma-ray irradiation alone. With parallel X-ray operation, processing capacity is expected to roughly double, with effects of cutting fresh fruit's inventory days and improving cold-storage turnover and transport cost.
Why "processing capacity" is the bottleneck for Vietnamese fruit
Vietnam's 2025 fruit-and-vegetable export value hit a record high of about US$8.5 billion. Of that, US-bound was about US$547 million, a large increase of roughly 50% year on year. Even so, Vietnamese product's share of all fruit, vegetables and processed goods the US imports stayed at 1.49%, leaving still-wide room as a market.
The problem lies in the point that what stops the growth margin is not the field but the processing step. For many items the harvest concentrates in a short period, loading the region, packing house, cold storage, quarantine and irradiation all at once. Irradiation in particular has high hurdles of capital investment and approval, and entrant companies have been limited. APHIS-certified irradiation facilities are confined to two companies, Son Son in Ho Chi Minh City and Toan Phat in Tay Ninh, and their combined irradiation capacity is said to stay on the order of 30,000 tonnes a year. A shortage of testing labs the case that stalled durian exports, as there, what produces "can grow it but can't ship it" is the processing infrastructure outside the field. This approval slightly widens that narrow entrance.
| Item | Figure |
|---|---|
| TPI's 2025 gamma-ray throughput (US-bound) | About 5,670 tonnes |
| Number of APHIS-certified irradiation facilities | 2 companies (Son Son / Toan Phat) |
| Combined irradiation capacity of the two | On the order of 30,000 tonnes a year |
| Vietnam's 2025 fruit-and-vegetable export value | About US$8.5 billion (record high) |
| Of which US-bound export value | About US$547 million (up about 50% year on year) |
| Vietnamese share of US fruit, vegetable and processed-goods imports | 1.49% |
The local and industry reception
Local reporting on the approval reveals a view that treats processing capacity as the lifeline of exports.
- Dang Phuc Nguyen of the Vietnam Fruit and Vegetable Association (Vinafruit) points out, "Processing capacity is precisely the key to meeting delivery deadlines and responding to export demand."
- Vietnam's Ministry of Agriculture and Environment rates the additional approval as raising export companies' operational flexibility during the harvest peak, when demand for quarantine treatment surges.
- The local industry: voices acknowledging the structural constraint that irradiation is an obligatory condition for US-bound export of many Vietnamese fruits, and that because facility approval takes huge investment and time, new entry has thinned.
For Japan, which does not permit irradiation, what does this approval mean?
This is the main point for those involved in Japanese sourcing. To state the conclusion first, this doubling of irradiation capacity does not directly increase Japan-bound shipments. But it is not unrelated either. There are three points to bear in mind.
First, Japan and the US have fundamentally different "passages" for quarantine treatment. Japan does not permit radiation treatment of food, with the sole exception of sprout suppression in Hokkaido potatoes. Even for imports, if irradiation is detected it is a violation of the Food Sanitation Act and cannot be distributed domestically. So Japan-bound mangoes and dragon fruit go through vapor-heat treatment (VHT) rather than irradiation. It is a treatment following MAFF's implementation rules that keeps the fruit's core temperature at 47 degrees or more for 20 minutes with saturated steam. Even if Toan Phat's irradiation lines increase, the vessel for Japan does not increase.
Second, a scramble for top grades can occur. Fruit for Japan and the US largely comes out of the same GAP-certified regions and the same packing houses. If the US side's treatment capacity widens, good product born at peak times is more easily pulled to the US channel. The single leg of China dependence led to below-cost roadside selling of durian after cadmium was detected, as there, Vietnamese regions are hurrying to diversify destinations, and the US is at the top of the list. Japanese buyers need to prepare for the tug-of-war over supply by fixing quantities early and securing VHT treatment slots in advance.
Third, the region's revenue stability also means supply stability for Japan. If the US channel thickens, the revenue of Vietnamese regions that have been swung around by the Chinese market's tightened inspection and price fluctuation is leveled out. A region with buyers in multiple markets is an easier partner for Japan to plan with than a region whose procurement unit price swings wildly. Reinforcing irradiation capacity is also, in a roundabout way, a story of lifting the supply base of Vietnamese fruit as a whole.
Practical points for the Japanese sourcing manager to secure
Since treatment methods diverge between Japan and the US, the key points to check when sourcing Vietnamese fruit also change. What works for Japan is not irradiation facilities but the certification and treatment slots of VHT facilities.
| Item | To the United States | To Japan |
|---|---|---|
| Quarantine treatment method | Radiation irradiation (gamma ray / X-ray) | Vapor-heat treatment (VHT) |
| Approving body | US Department of Agriculture APHIS | MAFF and the Plant Protection Station |
| Representative treatment standard | Dose-based irradiation | Fruit core temperature 47 degrees or more for 20 minutes |
| Equipment that tends to become a bottleneck | Irradiation facilities (2 domestic companies) | Certified VHT facilities and treatment slots |
| Direct impact of this news | Processing capacity roughly doubles | No direct increase (indirectly, supply stability) |
Japan-bound mango (Cat Chu variety) was cleared for export to Japan in 2015 and dragon fruit before that, but both are premised on treatment at VHT facilities in Vietnam certified by MAFF. VHT slots getting tight at peak times is the same structure as the US side's irradiation crunch. In procurement negotiations, you want to check not only the region but, going deeper, which certified facility's slots it has secured.
Summary-what to check next
The X-ray approval for Toan Phat is the first event to push open, from the technical side, the processing-capacity wall that has bound US-bound exports of Vietnamese fruit. For Japanese sourcing, it reaffirms that export infrastructure is being put in order on separate tracks for each destination. Three things to follow. First, how the reinforcement of US-bound processing capacity ripples into the price and supply of Vietnamese fruit as a whole. Second, how far the expanded certification of Japan-bound VHT facilities and their treatment slots hold up at peak times. Third, whether the shift of top grades to the US affects Japan's procurement supply. First, start by checking with your supplier regions how far they have secured Japan-bound VHT treatment slots this season.
Sources
- Nhà máy đầu tiên được Mỹ chấp thuận 2 công nghệ chiếu xạ trái cây xuất khẩu（Dân trí）
- First Vietnamese facility approved to use gamma and X-ray irradiation on fruit exports（Việt Nam News）
- Vietnam’s TPI approved for dual irradiation of U.S.-bound fruit（FreshPlaza）
- Plant-quarantine implementation rules on fresh fruit of Vietnamese Cat Chu mango (MAFF, Plant Protection Station)
- Q&A on radiation treatment of food (Food Safety Commission)
