Thousands of dragon fruit trees have been cut down in Binh Thuan Province after prices collapsed recently. Photo nld.com.vn

Dragon fruit prices have fallen off a cliff after the impasse at the China border due to COVID-19 fears held up Vietnamese trucks laden with various goods since late of last year.

Pham Kim Lam, a farmer in Ham Thuan Bac District, said the current dragon fruit prices of VND1,000-3,000 per kilogramme caused him to lose VND100 million (US$4,400) this season.

"I have cut down more than 1,000 dragon fruit trees and keep only around 600 to monitor the situation. If prices do not increase in the next few months, I will cut them all down.

“I still haven't decided what fruit tree to switch to, but it is impossible to keep dragon fruit trees because fertilisers are very expensive."

According to farmers, one kilogramme of dragon fruit grown in the off-season must fetch VND7,000-10,000 for them to break even due to the high costs of fertilisers and electricity, while currently in some places prices have fallen to even VND500.

The cost of labour for harvesting alone is VND600 per kilogramme.

Pham Thi Lan, another farmer, said she recently sold five tonnes of the fruit to a trader for just VND2 million, and called it “fortunate”, saying many farmers just could not sell their produce but still had to hire labourers to clean their orchards.

"After this crop, my family has to temporarily stop farming because there is no money left."

According to the Dragon Fruit Association of Binh Thuan Province, the price of the fruit has dropped sharply because export by road to China through the northern border is unviable since it is congested due to China’s tightened COVID-19 preventive measures for people, vehicles and goods packaging.

Exporting by sea is infeasible due to the scarcity of containers and high transport costs, it said.

Many dragon fruit export firms in Binh Thuan are also struggling.

Container shipping costs in Vietnam have quadrupled from pre-pandemic levels, even increased eight-fold, on certain high-demand routes, SSI Research said.

Huynh Canh, vice chairman of the Dragon Fruit Association of Binh Thuan Province, said shipping costs had increased from $1,600 per container at the beginning of 2020 to $5,000 by that year-end and to $9,100 now.

According to the Vietnam Maritime Administration, the pandemic has forced shipping companies to cut back on operations, causing a shortage of containers, and the closure of many ports around the world has increased shipping costs.

To help farmers, the association is looking at domestic consumption channels like traditional markets and supermarkets, but demand remains modest.

With exports to China falling to a trickle, it has urged authorities to step up promotion to help find customers elsewhere, especially in India, and develop the domestic market through supermarket chains to reduce the dependence on the northern neighbour.

With vegetarians making up a large proportion of the Indian population and people there consuming imported dragon fruit at weddings, it is potentially a huge market for Vietnam, experts said. 

Local authorities advise farmers not to destroy dragon fruit orchards 

Local authorities in the Mekong Delta have coordinated with related agencies to advise people not to destroy their dragon fruit orchards because the authorities will have a solution and dragon fruit is the main crop in the province, said Vo Thanh Long, Chairman of the People's Committee of Vinh Cong Commune in Long An Province’s Chau Thanh District. 

Today, Ms. Dinh Thi Phuong Khanh, Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Long An Province, said that dragon fruit prices are falling sharply because they cannot be exported to China. Because of the low selling price which is not enough to cover production costs, many households have cut down and switched to growing yellow apricots and other fruit trees...

As noted, dragon fruit growers in Long An and Tien Giang provinces have currently cut down the area of dragon fruit to switch to fruit trees and some other trees.

Mr. Truong Quoc Phuong in hamlet 7, Vinh Cong Commune in Chau Thanh District has nearly 10 years of growing dragon fruit with an area of more than 10 hectares. The family spent much on fertilizer and medicine for treating diseases on dragon fruit plants, not to mention the cost of hiring workers from VND35,000 an hour to VND 40,000 an hour.

Therefore, he last year destroyed a little area of dragon fruit to grow papaya, the family has so far earned money from selling papaya enough for the family’s meals. This year, he continued destroying nearly one ha of dragon fruit and is expected to grow coconuts. The family still kept the remaining area of dragon fruit with the expectation that the border gates will clear customs soon.

Farmers destroy their dragon fruit orchards. (Photo: SGGP)

Mr. Vo Thanh Long said that the commune has about 800 hectares of land for growing dragon fruits. Currently, about 10 percent of the area of dragon fruit is cut down, mainly old plants. People cut down and plant other fruit trees such as papaya, green-skinned pomelo, coconut, custard apple, and guava. 

In the coming time, the locality will orient to grow dragon fruits according to VietGap standard and apply high technology to have a direction to shift exports to other countries such as India, Japan, the US ... not completely dependent on the Chinese market, Chairman Long revealed.

Nguyen Quoc Trinh, Chairman of the Dragon Fruit Association of Long An Province, said that due to the Covid-19 epidemic, the largest dragon fruit consumption market of our country - China, has been frozen for more than a year.

Currently, Chinese consumers still believe in using Vietnamese dragon fruit, but due to the country's "zero Covid" policy, it has been difficult for Vietnamese fruits to be exported to the Chinese market as most of the fruit are exported to China using an unofficial quota.

First-grade dragon fruit is sold at around VND5,000 per kg while other types cost VND3,000 per kg, not enough to cover production costs, growers suffer huge losses.

According to Mr. Trinh only when the Covid-19 epidemic is controlled in both Vietnam and China, will dragon fruit exports recover as before, and growers will make a profit. In the long term, it is necessary to expand the market and reduce heavy dependence on China; at the same time, growers should export to China through an official quota.

In Cho Gao District with the largest area of dragon fruit in the Mekong Delta Province of Tien Giang, farmers also cut down the fruit trees.

Mr. Le Anh Thuy, Chairman of the People's Committee of Thanh Binh Commune, Cho Gao District, said that farmers had stopped cultivating nearly 20 hectares out of a total of nearly 600 hectares of dragon fruit in the commune because the price of dragon fruit could not make up for the production costs. However, mainly old trees have been chopped down.

Vice Chairman of Tien Giang Provincial People's Committee Pham Van Trong said that in the project ‘Developing dragon fruit trees of Tien Giang Province until 2025’ in an area of about 9,000 hectares.

Nevertheless, until now, the province's dragon fruit growing area has exceeded the project's target by more than 700 hectares. Local authorities and functional sectors cannot control growers.

Over the past time, the Agriculture and Rural Development departments of Tien Giang and Long An provinces have made great efforts in supporting people to consume dragon fruits.

Currently, responsible departments of these localities are formulating a plan to help people keep dragon fruit gardens as well as switch to high-tech dragon fruit cultivation, VietGap standard with the aim to increase the quality of dragon fruit as well as create favorable output for customers.

Source: VNS/SGGP

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