Dong Thap dragon fruit price drops sharply, farmers worry about losses

Photo caption — Gardeners in Tan Thuan Binh commune, Dong Thap province take care of dragon fruit. Photo: Cong Tri/VNA

According to records in the largest dragon fruit growing area of Dong Thap province in Tan Thuan Binh commune and neighboring communes in the East of the Go Cong sweetening area, the price of commercial dragon fruit is falling sharply, farmers are worried about not getting profits. With this price, growers can only break even, or even suffer losses due to the high cost of investing in fertilizers, pesticides and labor.

Mr. Nguyen Van Ut, Linh Dong hamlet, Tan Thuan Binh commune, Dong Thap province, cultivates 4,000 m2 of red-fleshed dragon fruit, said that traders are currently buying grade 1 dragon fruit for only 8,000 VND/kg, while grades 2 and 3 are only 4,000-5,000 VND/kg. Compared to less than a month ago, the above price is only 1/3.

According to Mr. Nguyen Van Ut, about 10 years ago, dragon fruit trees helped local people “change their lives”. However, in recent years, people’s lives have been very difficult due to unstable dragon fruit prices and unstable consumption markets.

Mr. Tran Hai Nguyen, a dragon fruit trader in Tan Thuan Binh commune, Dong Thap province, said that the reason for the sharp decrease in the price of dragon fruit in the first crop season is due to "supply exceeding demand"; favorable weather, dragon fruit has high yield. In addition, because it is the peak harvest season of many fruits and prolonged storms have caused slow consumption of dragon fruit. Besides, increased transportation and preservation costs also affect the competitiveness of the product.

Mr. Nguyen Cong Thanh, Chairman of Tan Thuan Binh Commune People's Committee, Dong Thap Province, said that to ensure sustainable development for dragon fruit in the future, Tan Thuan Binh Commune People's Committee and other dragon fruit growing communes orient and create favorable conditions for cooperatives and enterprises to cooperate with dragon fruit growers to create valuable products. Thereby, to increase export turnover as well as overcome technical barriers of trade agreements, aiming to reach larger consumer markets through official export channels.

According to dragon fruit growers, due to the sharp decrease in the price of the favorable crop, dragon fruit growers in Dong Thap are currently expecting the upcoming off-season production (processing off-season flowering by using lights), with prices that may increase compared to the present time.

In addition, Dong Thap's agricultural sector recommends that farmers do not expand their acreage massively, but focus on improving quality and applying production processes that meet VietGAP and GlobalGAP standards to easily connect with processing and export enterprises. At the same time, the province is promoting the introduction of dragon fruit products into the domestic consumption chain and e-commerce, helping to stabilize output and reduce dependence on traditional markets.

Dragon fruit is known as the “rich tree” of many farmers in Dong Thap. However, in order to avoid the “good harvest, low price” refrain, local authorities need to synchronously deploy comprehensive solutions to support farmers such as cultivation techniques, production scale, brand building, consumption market, processing, etc.

According to the Department of Agriculture and Environment of Dong Thap province, the locality has built a specialized dragon fruit export area of nearly 9,400 hectares, with an annual harvest of over 236,000 tons of fruit concentrated in the eastern communes of the province located in the Go Cong sweetening area, including Cho Gao, An Thanh Thuy, My Tinh An, Dong Son, Vinh Binh, Go Cong communes...

Up to now, Dong Thap province has had over 2,300 hectares of dragon fruit area certified to meet GAP standards, along with 33 growing area codes for export to the Chinese market with 5,493 hectares and 92 growing area codes for export to the Japanese, US, Korean, and Australian markets with 1,271 hectares.

Source: https://baotintuc.vn/kinh-te/gia-thanh-long-dong-thap-giam-sau-nong-dan-lo-lang-thua-lo-20251016120133006.htm