Interest in dragon fruit export wanes
Unlike a few years ago, enterprises in Binh Thuan Province are no longer interested in exporting local dragon fruit to the U.S. because of high export costs and reduced consumption of the fruit in the foreign market, according to Tran Ngoc Hiep, chairman of the Association of Dragon Fruit Producers in Binh Thuan.
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Binh Thuan Province has a total cultivation area of 11,000 hectares with an annual harvest of 200,000 tons. (Photo: SGT) |
Hiep told the Daily on January 26 that since irradiation services were costly and Americans were eating less of the fruit, exporters in the province had lost appetite for shipping to the U.S.
He said that since late 2008, dragon fruit exporters in the province had shipped only 200 tons to the U.S., a modest amount compared to the hundreds of thousands of tons exported each year to China and Europe.
“The export price of dragon fruit to the U.S. is some US$3 per kilogram, but the cost of irradiating the fruit is still too high, around US$1.10 per kilogram,” Hiep said. He added that although the export price to Europe was lower, estimated at US$2 per kilogram, dragon fruit consumption was much stronger and exporters incurred fewer costs.
Hiep also said that in 2010, his Hoang Hau Dragon Fruit Company Limited would reduce exports to the U.S. and increase shipments to China and Europe. The company has been sending around 5,000 tons of dragon fruit to Europe each year.
Binh Thuan Province has eight main dragon fruit exporters. According to Hiep, the provincial government has not built an irradiation facility to help local dragon fruit exporters. So far, HCMC-based Son Son Aquatic Products Processing Joint Stock Company has been the only enterprise authorized to irradiate dragon fruit bound for America.
According to the association, Binh Thuan Province, the nation’s key dragon fruit growing area, has a total cultivation area of 11,000 hectares with an annual harvest of 200,000 tons.
Hiep also said that demand for dragon fruit on the local market had increased rapidly, pushing the price of dragon fruit at farms to VND13,000-15,000 per kilogram, a three-fold increase compared to last month.
VietNamNet/SGT
Tags: Vietnam agriculture, Vietnam dragon export