China stops buying, Binh Thuan dragon fruit price drops to 1,000 VND/kg

"Never before have prices fallen as miserably as this year. Prices have hit rock bottom but many gardeners still cannot sell," Mr. Han, a dragon fruit farmer in Ham Thuan Nam district, lamented.

Currently, good dragon fruit only costs 1,000 - 2,000 VND/kg, bad dragon fruit is definitely thrown away.

Dragon fruit is sold cheaply, only 1,000 VND/kg

For many days now, farmers in some areas growing a lot of dragon fruit in Binh Thuan province such as Ham Thuan Bac, Ham Thuan Nam, Ham Tan... have been in trouble because they cannot find an outlet for their dragon fruit.

Mr. Han's 3 hectares of dragon fruit with a yield of tens of tons are ripening red and the fruit is being left in the garden. He said there is a risk that this year's crop will be a total loss.

In case traders do not buy, farmers like Mr. Han are forced to cut down the trees themselves to nourish them for the next crop. This is the reason why dragon fruit in Binh Thuan province is currently piled up all over the garden, even dumped to feed cows.

“Previously, the peak price of dragon fruit was over 25,000 VND/kg. At that time, farmers could get rich with dragon fruit, but now they pay for a whole garden of dozens of tons for less than ten million, so they lose a lot,” he said.

Many farmers believe that with the large investment costs, especially those who use lamps, each kilogram of dragon fruit sold on the market for 10,000 VND is the only way they can expect to make a profit. Therefore, this is the season that many families investing in dragon fruit in the capital city of Binh Thuan are crying their eyes out.

Dragon fruit exported to China is being congested.

According to Mr. S., the owner of a large facility specializing in purchasing dragon fruit in Binh Thuan province, the current supply of dragon fruit in the province has exceeded demand.

“I have temporarily stopped purchasing from farmers because dragon fruit in China is currently in backlog. Only when I have finished selling dragon fruit in this market can I buy from farmers again,” said Mr. S.

According to the owner of this facility, this year due to favorable weather, dragon fruit in many regions in the province ripened simultaneously, no longer following the usual cycle of fruit blooming from one region to another. At the same time, many families lit dragon fruit, causing the yield to increase even more.

Before this time, namely Mid-Autumn Festival and major Chinese holidays, Binh Thuan dragon fruit was still very popular. However, due to oversupply, even in the largest market of Vietnamese dragon fruit, China, there was a "flood of goods".

According to statistics, Binh Thuan province is currently the largest supplier of dragon fruit for domestic consumption and export in the country with an area of ​​over 27,000 hectares, yielding over 600,000 tons/year.

Of these, more than 80% are exported through unofficial channels to China. Therefore, when this market does not accept them, dragon fruit growers have no place to sell them.

Not only Binh Thuan, farmers in some other areas such as Ba Ria - Vung Tau, Long An, Tien Giang ... are also in trouble because of falling dragon fruit prices and not finding an outlet. Currently, warehouses storing Binh Thuan dragon fruit exported to China are overloaded, so there is no more room for other places.

In a recent conference on Vietnamese agricultural products, experts said that China is the largest consumer market for Vietnamese agricultural products, including dragon fruit.

However, instead of official export, currently domestic small and micro enterprises mainly use unofficial channels (border trade) through the border.

Experts say that this form of export is unsustainable and always carries many risks. To avoid the situation of “good harvest, low price”, farmers need to carefully study market demand and increasingly focus on quality rather than output.