Tien Giang has identified dragon fruit as one of its specialty fruits and taken a number of measures to improve the competitiveness of specialty fruits. — VNA/VNS
TIEN GIANG: The Mekong Delta province of Tien Giang, Vietnam’s largest fruit producer, has 80 dragon fruit growing area codes that span more than 6,140 ha for export to markets that include Japan, the United States, South Korea and Australia.
These are mainly in the districts of Cho Gao, Tan Phuoc, Go Cong Tay and Go Cong Dong.
Cho Gao district is the largest dragon fruit growing area in Tien Giang province with 6,870 ha, of which, 5,640 ha are being harvested, with an annual output of about 190,000 tonnes per year.
Cho Gao dragon fruit has been granted a collective brand name by the National Office of Intellectual Property.
It has established cooperatives to bring farmers together to adopt good agricultural practices (GAP) standards and ensure origin traceability.
It has also strengthened activities to advertise the fruit and promote sales.
In Go Cong Dong district, Kieng Phuoc Commune normally faces saltwater intrusion in the dry season which affects rice cultivation.
Tran Nong was one of the first farmers in the commune to switch from rice to red flesh dragon fruit.
He used intensive farming methods and produced off-season fruit to harvest about 25 tonnes a year and earn 300 million dong to 350 million dong, a lot more lucrative than rice, he said.
The price of dragon fruit is high this year with red flesh dragon fruit fetching 30,000 dong to 35,000 dong a kilogramme, three times the price of 12 months ago.
Income from dragon fruit is second only to durian, the province’s specialty fruit.
Nguyen Tan Dat, deputy chairman of the commune, said: “To restructure agriculture to cope with climate change and natural disasters, more than 100 ha of farmland in coastal areas has been turned into dragon fruit orchards.”
The commune planned to increase this to 250 ha by 2025, he added.
Tien Giang has identified dragon fruit as one of its specialty fruits and taken a number of measures to improve the competitiveness of specialty fruits and ensure they have steady buyers.
These measures have sustainably helped develop specialised dragon fruit growing areas, renovate agriculture production and foster rural development.
Tien Giang province has cultivated over 2,306 ha of dragon fruit that meet GAP standards, of which, 2,196 ha are VietGAP certified and 110 ha are GlobalGAP certified.
The province is setting a goal that by 2025, there will be 3,600 ha of dragon fruit meeting GAP criteria.
It has set up co-operatives to grow and sell dragon fruit with improved fruit quality in the off-season, to avoid oversupply during the main harvest season.
It features 11 co-operatives that grow and buy dragon fruit and 2,300 ha of dragon fruit grown to GAP standards.
It also has 5,493 ha of dragon fruit with production codes for official export to China and 1,271 ha with codes for exports to Japan, the United States, South Korea and Australia.
To get a code, a dragon fruit growing area needs to be at least 10 ha and adopt VietGAP or other equivalent standards. — Viet Nam News/ANN
