Since exports of Vietnamese dragon fruit, mainly through the border with China, are volatile, farmers want the fruit to be promoted in the local market, a conference held by the Ministry of Trade and Industry and Bình Thuận Province last week heard.
According to figures from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), dragon fruit is grown on 37,000ha and the annual output is some 630,000 tonnes.
This includes 26,500ha in Bình Thuận, which produces over 500,000 tonnes of the fruit.
It is also grown in the provinces of Long An, Tiền Giang and Vĩnh Long, with the area under the fruit being constantly expanded.
MARD estimates that 15-20 per cent of the fruit is consumed in the domestic market and 2-3 per cent is exported elsewhere with the remaining 80-85 per cent traded over the border with Chinese companies.
Đỗ Minh Kính, deputy director of the Bình Thuận Department of Trade and Industry, said there was an overwhelming dependence on the Chinese market, which makes exports of the fruit unstable and risky.
The output in these southern provinces is huge, and with much of their exports heading for China, their trucks are often forced to queue at the border which causes the fruits to spoil and farmers and exporters to suffer losses.
According to Ngô Văn Tuấn, director of the Tiền Giang Province Department of Trade and Industry, the local market is ignored.
To promote production and add value, provinces growing this fruit needed to launch trade promotion activities and persuade local and foreign companies to join the processing and consumption chains, Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry Hồ Thị Kim Thoa said.
Processors were encouraged to diversify and make other products, she said.
Delegates from the provinces of Bình Thuận, Long An and Tiền Giang urged the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to make zoning plans for dragon fruit cultivation around the country, and to draft criteria for using agro-chemicals to improve the quality of the fruit.
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