Vietnam Striving for Safer Dragon Fruit Export

A Japan funded initiative will work a project to ensure biosecurity for fruit exports after dragon fruit failed to meet quality requirements in Europe and other markets.

 

The $3 million project will run until 2008, to ensure continued export of the fruit to key markets, according to the Vietnam Farmers’ Association.

 

The Japanese funds will be allocated to training of biosecurity specialists, experiments and identification and lengthening preservation periods for exporting dragon fruit to meet international requirements. While the key market for dragon fruit is Asia, the project is another in a series of Vietnamese efforts to improve the quality of fruit exports to meet the high standards required by Japan and the EU.

 

Nguyen Duc Dat, director at the Centre of Flora Quarantine said that with strict biosecurity processes in place, dragon fruit should be approved for export to Japan and other countries from 2009.

 

Dr Vo Mai, chairman of Vietnam Fruit Association (VFA), stressed that application of Good Agriculture Practices (GAP) technologies is one of a number of methods to meet quality demands. GAP processes would also lengthen the period of preservation of dragon fruit to 24 days.

 

The US Agency for International Development and the Australian Agency for International Development have signed a cooperative agreement with the South Fruit Research Institute to assist in the development of dragon fruit production in Vietnam.

 

Presently, dragon fruit exports bring in US$3 million per month with average export price of 50 cents per kilo.