Chile and South Korea have officially opened up their markets to Vietnamese dragon fruit.
President of the Binh Thuan Dragon Fruit Association Bui Dang Hung on Thursday said only radiated or heat-treated dragon fruit was acceptable for export to the two markets.
Also, dragon fruit farms had to be checked and granted licenses by the two countries’ plant protection departments under the ministries of agriculture if they wanted to export their products, he said.
Currently, businesses in the southern province of Binh Thuan are engaging in the process of receiving licenses from Chile and the South Korea, Hung added.
Early this month, out-of-season dragon fruits in Binh Thuan Province have been shipped to China at a high price of VND8,000 per kilogram.
A seminar is scheduled to take place in the northern province of Lang Son to help Chinese and Vietnamese businesses deal with difficulties when exporting dragon fruits to China in small volumes.
Binh Thuan has 12,300 hectares of dragon fruit trees, of which 2,100 hectares have been grown under VietGAP standards. The province’s main export market is Asian nations, especially China, with 70 percent of market share, followed by the US and European countries.
