According to a review by the agricultural sector, the area of dragon fruit trees in Ham Thuan Bac district has decreased from nearly 9,400 hectares to over 5,800 hectares (a reduction of nearly 3,600 hectares compared to before).
The reason is that locally, the majority of dragon fruit harvested in the district is intended for informal export to the Chinese market. However, in recent years, due to the negative impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the consumption of fresh dragon fruit has faced many difficulties as China implemented a "Zero Covid" policy for an extended period, temporarily closing border crossings with Vietnam. This has severely affected agricultural products involved in informal exports, including dragon fruit, causing prices to plummet and resulting in losses for many farmers. Farmers were unable to produce, had to cut down large areas of their dragon fruit, and switch to other crops.
Faced with fluctuating prices and a challenging market, several cooperatives and businesses in Ham Thuan Bac district have explored and developed a diverse range of products from fresh dragon fruit. For example, in Ma Lam town, the Hoa Le Clean Dragon Fruit Cooperative produces various types of dragon fruit wine, dragon fruit concentrate, dragon fruit ice cream, dragon fruit candy, dragon fruit tea, dragon fruit jam, dragon fruit biscuits, dried dragon fruit flowers, dried and chewy dragon fruit. The Bao Long Dragon Fruit facility in Phu Long town, in addition to dragon fruit wine and juice, also processes dragon fruit syrup, dragon fruit malt, and dragon fruit kombucha. The Ham Duc Dragon Fruit Cooperative focuses on producing white dragon fruit wine, red dragon fruit wine, and more.
Over the past period, many relevant units of the district and the People's Committees of communes and towns have also shown interest, maintained close contact, and created favorable conditions to support the development of new products from dragon fruit. Among them, Hoa Le Clean Dragon Fruit Cooperative, Ham Duc Dragon Fruit Cooperative, and Bao Long Dragon Fruit Establishment have had many products recognized as OCOP at the provincial level… It is known that to date, Ham Thuan Bac has more than 10 products recognized as OCOP, ranked from 3 to 4 stars, mainly processed products made from fresh dragon fruit.
This August, the People's Committee of Ham Thuan Bac district also developed a plan to implement the One Commune One Product Program (OCOP) in the district. Accordingly, in 2023, the locality aims to have at least 6 more products recognized as OCOP products with 3 stars or higher, while also upgrading potential OCOP products and re-evaluating expired OCOP products in accordance with regulations. In addition, it will organize trade promotion activities for participating businesses to introduce and promote OCOP products, connect supply and demand, expand consumption markets, and aim for export… According to the specific list, this year the entire district has 15 products participating in the OCOP product evaluation and classification for the first time, and 4 products undergoing re-evaluation and classification. Of the products participating in the initial evaluation and ranking, 9 out of 15 were processed from dragon fruit: white dragon fruit juice concentrate, red dragon fruit juice concentrate, dragon fruit wine, dragon fruit men's wine, dragon fruit flower tea, dried dragon fruit flowers, dragon fruit jam, white dried dragon fruit, and red dried dragon fruit.
Furthermore, Ham Thuan Bac district currently has two potential models for developing dragon fruit garden tourism experiences: the model of growing the new yellow-skinned dragon fruit variety of Trung Binh Cooperative (Ham Duc commune) with an area of 100 hectares and the model of growing the Ecuadorian bird's nest dragon fruit variety with an area of 3 hectares (Hong Liem commune). In addition, the locality is also promoting coordination with the Provincial Cooperative Union to implement the project "Sustainable Production and Consumption Ecosystem of Binh Thuan Dragon Fruit". This is considered an opportunity to develop dragon fruit garden tourism experiences, combined with visiting and enjoying processed products made from fresh dragon fruit from several cooperatives in Ham Thuan Bac district…
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