A farmer harvests dragon fruit in Binh Thuan Province
In the southern province of Tien Giang, farmers happily shared that dragon fruit prices have tripled compared to last month, bringing them good profits.
"I've just sold five tonnes of dragon fruit at VND 25,500 per kilo," farmer Nguyen Thi Be said. "I earned a profit of nearly VND 100 million with this crop."
According to the Tien Giang Province Portal, during the dragon fruit main crop in August, the prices fell sharply to just between VND 2,000-6,000 per kilo. At present, the fruit is being sold at between VND23,000-34,000 per kilo. Current prices are triple that of a month ago and ten times higher compared to August.
The rise can be attributed to the off-season volume of fruit available and increased Chinese demand.
At the dragon fruit hub of Binh Thuan Province, prices have also gone up to between VND 35,000-37,000 per kilo.
Director of Thuan Tien Dragon Fruit Collective, Tran Dinh Trung, said that the area had some 200 hectares of dragon fruit, but this was not the right season, so supply remained modest.
"The Chinese market has become more open and exports to some other markets including the US, EU and Australia have benefited from lower shipping fees, Trung said. "Our farmers are enjoying better incomes."
Dang Phuc Nguyen - General Secretary of the Vietnam Fruit and Vegetable Association said that China was still the biggest buyer of Vietnamese dragon fruits, accounting for 90 percent of export revenues.
"China is buying more dragon fruit from Vietnam for the coming Lunar New Year Festival as their production falls," Nguyen said. "Meanwhile, our domestic demand is also increasing for the festival. It is expected that Vietnam will see USD billions of revenue from exporting dragon fruits to China in 2023."
Statistics from the Vietnam Customs showed that as of October 2022, dragon fruit exports made USD 552.30 million in revenue, accounting for 32.50 percent of the country's total fruit and vegetable export revenue.
