Highly dependent on the Chinese market, mainly exporting in the form of small quotas, making dragon fruit output difficult, especially when this market applies the “Zero Covid” policy. Finding a long way for dragon fruit is a problem.
According to data from the Department of Crop Production (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development), currently Vietnamese dragon fruit is grown in most of 63 provinces and cities with a total area of nearly 65,000 hectares, with an average output of nearly 1.4 million USD. tons/year. In which, 3 provinces including Binh Thuan, Long An and Tien Giang grow the most dragon fruit. In 2015, the export value of Vietnamese dragon fruit reached 483 million USD and by 2020 it will reach more than 1.1 billion USD.
Mr. Le Thanh Tung – Deputy Director of the Cultivation Department (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development) – said that the attractiveness of dragon fruit has promoted the expansion of acreage, increasing production to serve export. However, dragon fruit relies heavily on the Chinese market and is mainly exported in the form of small quotas. Recently, due to the impact of the Covid-19 epidemic, China implemented the “Zero Covid” policy, making it difficult to export dragon fruits to this market. Every time this market changes policy, consumption is difficult, the price drops from only 2,000 VND/kg to 3,000 VND/kg, people suffer heavy losses.
Currently, dragon fruit is mainly exported to the Chinese market:
Records in localities show that, after the 2022 Lunar New Year, the price of dragon fruit in Ba Ria – Vung Tau province has increased significantly, from 14,000 -18,000 VND/kg. However, after it was reported that Lang Son province stopped accepting agricultural products, the price of dragon fruit in the province suddenly dropped sharply, only half, traders only bought dragon fruit for 7,000 VND/kg grade 1. , and type 2, type 3, almost no one buys.
Similarly, in Tien Giang province, red flesh dragon fruit at the time of Lunar New Year, the price of over 20,000 VND/kg has turned down to 3,000 – 5,000 VND/kg (depending on type), even dragon fruit of different types. 3 and 4 prices are only 2,000 VND/kg, but few traders buy them. At this price, growers of dragon fruit trees suffer heavy losses.
After a period of deep decline because traders stopped buying or buying in moderation, the price of dragon fruit is increasing slightly again. In Cho Gao district, the largest dragon fruit-growing region of Tien Giang province, traders are now buying red flesh dragon fruit at the garden of grade 1 for 16,000 VND/kg, grade 2 for 11,000 VND/kg and grade 3 with a price of 16,000 VND/kg. price 6,000 VND/kg. Cheaper white flesh dragon fruit.
As one of the dragon fruit capitals, Mr. Mai Kieu – Director of Binh Thuan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development – said that the production scale is still small and fragmented; The construction of concentrated production areas has not been much… so the productivity, quality, and competitiveness of dragon fruit are still low. On the other hand, the development of preservation and processing is still weak, the proportion of quality products and export brands is low. The consumption is not stable, the price is still unstable, the consumption market is not diversified, and it depends a lot on the Chinese market. Therefore, when exporting through this market encounters many difficulties. In particular, at present, some border gates are temporarily closed or imported, but with very limited clearance output, which greatly affects consumption and export.
The question is what is the solution for dragon fruit?
There are currently 2 views on this, including: only allowing dragon fruit to grow up to 100,000 ha; need to reduce the area. However, according to Mr. Le Thanh Tung, the increase or decrease must consider market factors and the acumen of businesses and localities, as well as strengthen the link between dragon fruit consumption for sustainable development. . Besides, it is necessary to step up processing. “For dragon fruit processing, we currently have a variety of products but only consume 5% of the output, so it has to be increased to 20-25% to make sense,” said Mr. Le Thanh Tung.
Another problem for Vietnam’s dragon fruit is that China has grown dragon fruit with a large area and high output, so it has directly affected the consumption of Vietnamese dragon fruit to this market. Previously, they only produced dragon fruit harvested from May-October (seasonal), now they also have seasonal goods.
Dr. Tran Minh Hai, director of the Center for Cooperative Economics Training and Consulting (School of Agriculture and Rural Development II), said that when they entered the official season, they did everything they could to protect the domestic market. Therefore, Vietnamese dragon fruit is no longer the “golden” period as before. On the other hand, the chain is weak, although the output is large, the quality of goods is small, so it cannot meet the needs of some markets. Therefore, besides diversifying markets and reducing dependence on the Chinese market, it is necessary to improve product quality.
The story of dragon fruit as well as many other agricultural products shows that it is challenging in terms of markets, linkages, consumption… Finding a long way for dragon fruit poses a problem that needs to be changed in approach and reorganization. agricultural production and restructuring.
The market owns the production, so localities must reorganize dragon fruit production, starting from the commune level in the direction of understanding production to understanding market needs, partners and competitors. It is necessary to avoid the situation of “strongly everyone does it” in a fragmented, small, spontaneous manner, etc. To improve the value of dragon fruit, it is also necessary to gradually convert small-scale exports to official quotas.