Vietnam’s biggest dragon fruit producing region is planning to expand its production for export markets, according to Viet Nam News.
Bình Thuận province, which farms over 9,500ha of dragon fruit under the Vietnamese Good Agricultural Practice (VietGAP) standards, is striving to add 300 more hectares under the scheme this year, the publication said.
Bình Thuận currently produces more than 600,000 tonnes of dragon fruit annually, the report said.
Vietnam’s total dragon fruit exports reached US$427m in the first four months of 2018, a year-on-year increase of 9 per cent, the publication added.
In a bid to develop new export markets for Vietnam’s dragon fruit production, Vietnam’s ambassador to India this week led a delegation of trade officials from Vietnam’s Bình Thuận province to India, Viet Nam News said.
At a marketing event in New Delhi on 25 September, Vietnamese Ambassador to India Tôn Sinh Thanh briefed attendees on Vietnam and the advantages Bình Thuận holds in tourism and agriculture. He said he expected promotional events to further trade relations between the two countries.
Over the following several days, officials from Bình Thuận were scheduled to meet with the Trade Promotion Council of India and Reliance Retail Limited. They were also due to attend an international food and beverage trade show in Mumbai, as well as another promotional event for dragon fruit at Sofitel Mumbai BKC hotel, the website said.
According to the General Department of Vietnam Customs, dragon fruit accounted for 32 per cent of Vietnamese fruit and vegetable exports.
Revenue from dragon fruit exports was nearly four times higher than the two fruit exports ranked below it – longan, which had an export value of US$121m, and mangoes, whose export value stood at US$104m.
