At the end of the season, the price of dragon fruit increases significantly.

Farmers are delighted to harvest dragon fruit due to high and stable selling prices.

According to many dragon fruit growers, the current price of dragon fruit is high because it is nearing the end of the harvest season. Specifically, the price of dragon fruit ranges from 10,000 to 30,000 VND/kg. Of that, white-fleshed dragon fruit is priced at 10,000-12,000 VND/kg; red-fleshed dragon fruit (grade 1) is priced at 28,000-30,000 VND/kg, grade 2 at 22,000-24,000 VND/kg, and grade 3 at 16,000-18,000 VND/kg.

Mr. Le Van Binh (Binh Quoi commune, Chau Thanh district) recently harvested 4 tons of dragon fruit, selling it at 25,000 VND/kg. After deducting expenses, he earned a profit of over 60 million VND. Mr. Binh said: “From the beginning of 2023 until now, the price of dragon fruit has been relatively stable, not dropping like last year. This is an incentive for farmers to confidently invest in and care for their dragon fruit orchards.”

Having just harvested over 2 hectares of dragon fruit and sold it at 23,000 VND/kg, Mr. Nguyen Van Be (An Luc Long commune, Chau Thanh district) shared: “Although the price of dragon fruit is not as high as in previous years, it is more stable, so growers have a higher income and can confidently invest in dragon fruit cultivation, continuing to take care of their orchards to prepare for off-season production.”

Currently, the province has successfully established the geographical indication "Chau Thanh - Long An Dragon Fruit" for dragon fruit, and has 3 cooperatives and 1 association that have been granted certificates of the right to use the geographical indication "Chau Thanh - Long An Dragon Fruit", including: Tam Vu Dragon Fruit Cooperative, Thanh Phu Long Cooperative, Duong Xuan Cooperative and Long An Dragon Fruit Association.

In addition, over the past period, the provincial Department of Agriculture, in coordination with local authorities, has implemented training and technology transfer on dragon fruit cultivation according to VietGAP and GlobalGAP standards for cooperatives, cooperative groups, and farmers. As a result, many cooperatives have established high-quality dragon fruit growing areas.

For example, the Tam Vu Dragon Fruit Cooperative (Chau Thanh district) has established a dragon fruit growing area according to VietGAP and GlobalGAP standards with over 40 members and a production area of more than 50 hectares. The director of the Tam Vu Dragon Fruit Cooperative, Truong Quang An, shared: “Thanks to good adherence to VietGAP and GlobalGAP standards and procedures, the cooperative's dragon fruit is highly valued by purchasing companies. Currently, the cooperative continues to encourage dragon fruit growers to join the cooperative and switch to production according to VietGAP and GlobalGAP standards to stabilize output.”

According to the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, the province currently has nearly 9,000 hectares of dragon fruit, an increase of over 640 hectares compared to the same period last year. Of this, more than 7,300 hectares of dragon fruit are bearing fruit, mainly concentrated in Chau Thanh and Tan Tru districts and Tan An city. The province has 241 registered growing areas for export to markets such as South Korea, Japan, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, the EU, Russia, the United Kingdom, and China.

According to Nguyen Thanh Truyen, Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development: To ensure a long-term, sustainable solution for the future development of dragon fruit, the provincial agricultural sector, in coordination with localities, is guiding and creating favorable conditions for cooperatives and businesses to cooperate with dragon fruit growers in producing according to VietGAP, GlobalGAP, organic standards, etc., to increase export turnover; at the same time, overcoming regulations and technical barriers of importing countries to move towards sustainable production-consumption linkages.

Furthermore, the provincial Department of Agriculture has advised the Provincial People's Committee to call upon and encourage processing enterprises to invest in building factories producing a variety of processed products from dragon fruit, thereby contributing to solving some of the problem of dragon fruit oversupply during the peak harvest season.

Minh Tue

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