Shrinking Chinese exports halve dragon fruit prices

Hoang, who sells fruits from a cart on Go Vap District’s Thong Nhat Road in Ho Chi Minh City, said this is the first time red-fleshed dragon fruit has been sold at stalls on roads and streets in the city.

Thuan, another mobile fruit seller on Pham Van Dong Road in Thu Duc City, said: "Many dragon fruit growers in the Mekong Delta province of Tien Giang sell the fruit at such a low price that they barely want to harvest them anymore."

In the province's Cho Gao District, traders are buying red-fleshed dragon fruit from orchards at prices of VND4,000-8,000 per kilogram.

Huu, who grows 4,000 square meters of red-fleshed dragon fruit in the district, said he does not make a profit at current prices.

If earnings from the fruit continue to decrease, his family may switch to other crops.

According to the Long An Dragon Fruit Association, the province has 9,000 hectares of dragon fruit, down from the peak of 12,000 hectares some years ago.

Fruit exporters said the prices have fallen because China has reduced imports, meanwhile, Vietnamese demand for the fruit is weak since many other tropical fruits with attractive prices are currently in season.

Last year, Chinese authorities said the nation had grown the fruit on 67,000 hectares, producing 1.6 million tons. The figures exceeded Vietnam’s current output.

Chinese newspaper The People’s Daily reported that farmers in Cixi, part of the eastern province of Zhejiang, worked all night to artificially pollinate dragon fruit, ensuring a bumper crop.

Red-fleshed dragon fruit is selling for seven renminbi (nearly $1) per kilogram, while white-fleshed dragon fruit imported from Vietnam goes for around nine renminbi in Nanning, the capital of Guangxi Province.

Vietnam’s dragon fruit exports in the first eight months declined 4.4% year-on-year to $442 million. Specifically, red-fleshed dragon fruit exports to China dropped by 36.5%.