Quickly remove the "export procedure" bottleneck for dragon fruit to go to Europe

Up to this point, after more than half a month of backlog of large quantities of GlobalGAP dragon fruit exported to Europe, some gardeners and businesses in the province are facing difficulties, with the risk of losing billions of dong. The reason is not due to quality but due to procedures. Currently, the professional sector is looking for solutions to resolve the problem.

Global GAP dragon fruit is preparing to be exported to Europe (photo by Kieu Hang).

Mr. Huynh Canh - Chairman of Binh Thuan Dragon Fruit Association (Lam Dong province) said that from July 1, 2025, Europe requires that certificates must be issued by state agencies, instead of enterprises self-inspecting or through third parties. This is the bottleneck that hinders the export procedures of Lam Dong GlobalGAP dragon fruit in particular and some other agricultural products such as okra and chili from Vietnam. Therefore, hundreds of tons of dragon fruit of farmers and exporting enterprises in Lam Dong have to be stored in warehouses. This reality puts gardeners at risk of heavy losses if the procedures are not resolved promptly.

Dragon fruit farm seen from above (photo by Ngoc Lan).

This reality is happening at the GlobalGAP dragon fruit farm of Mr. Tran Quoc Thang, Ham Thuan Nam commune, Lam Dong province. That is with 36 hectares of GlobalGAP dragon fruit in the harvest period. Normally, the post-harvest output will be regularly consumed to the European market through export enterprises in Ho Chi Minh City. But surprisingly, from July 1, with about 50 tons of harvested dragon fruit, the enterprise that signed the purchase contract did not make the transaction. Forced, he had to preserve this large quantity in the warehouse, but the preservation time of dragon fruit is only about 15 days, otherwise it will be damaged and lost. The situation is even more difficult when Mr. Thang's farm has about 30 tons of dragon fruit expected to be harvested in the near future. In particular, dragon fruit exported to Europe requires small weight (about 10 fruits/3 kg), so it is very difficult to sell to other markets, making domestic consumption even more difficult. Sharing the same difficulties as Mr. Thang, Son Tra dragon fruit farm in the same area also has 30 tons of dragon fruit in stock since the beginning of July 2025 to export to Europe, but until now there is still inventory, not to mention dozens of tons of dragon fruit preparing to harvest in the coming days.

Dragon fruit is ripe and ready to harvest.

According to the Binh Thuan Dragon Fruit Association, the province currently has about 26,000 hectares of dragon fruit, of which over 453 hectares are GlobalGAP dragon fruit. Notably, GlobalGAP dragon fruit exported to Europe has a very high price, from 18,000 (white flesh) to 28,000 VND/kg (red flesh). Previously, businesses only needed to check that their goods did not have pesticide residues to be granted a certificate to export to the European market. Due to this shortcoming, up to now, after more than half a month of stagnant agricultural products after harvest, gardeners and businesses are facing difficulties, with the risk of losing billions of VND.

Faced with this reality, the Chairman of the Binh Thuan Dragon Fruit Association recommended that the authorities quickly intervene to find out the specific cause of the new request from Europe. Thereby, there is an urgent solution to establish a process for granting certificates by the state.

Currently, in order to promptly resolve difficulties and problems of enterprises, especially enterprises exporting dragon fruit, okra, chili to the European market and implementing state inspection procedures on food safety for exported plant-based foods in accordance with regulations, the Department of Food Safety of Ho Chi Minh City has proposed that the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment soon issue regulations on dossiers, procedures, and issuance of other certificates according to the form required by the importing country (Certificate according to EU requirements) so that the assigned state agency has a legal basis for implementation. While waiting for the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment to issue regulations on dossier components and detailed instructions for issuing certificates according to the form required by the importing country, the Department of Food Safety will carry out state inspection procedures on food safety of exported plant-based foods in accordance with regulations. On the part of gardeners, businesses hope that relevant authorities will soon remove the bottleneck of "export procedures" for dragon fruit to Europe to avoid economic losses and damage to the brand of Vietnamese agricultural products in general and Lam Dong dragon fruit in particular.

Source: https://baolamdong.vn/som-go-nut-that-thu-tuc-xuat-ngoai-cho-thanh-long-di-chau-au-382608.html