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Dragon fruit on its way to US market
Binh Thuan province in the central coast is taking the final steps to export dragon fruit to the US market after its Ham Minh cooperative has been chosen by US importers as the sole supplier.
Vice Chairman of the Provincial People’s Committee Nguyen Van Thu said the province is focusing on building a safe dragon fruit processing circle at enterprises which have received the EurepGap certificate in order to meet US requirements. Qualified products must be recognised free of insect damages and going through radiation disinfection.
Ham Minh cooperative itself has received the certificate on GlobalGap-standards agricultural production, in addition to the EurepGap recognition.
The cooperative also underwent a thorough examination on its entire production and packaging process by a US quarantine delegation from the Department of Agriculture in 2006. The inspection has contributed to its licence to export the local specialty to the world’s largest economy from July, 2008.
Along with efforts to register the dragon fruit trademark to the US early next year, the province is bracing for other problems related to customs procedures and anti-dumping law.
The fruit has taken a firm foothold in China, Malaysia, Thailand, Europe and Middle-east.
In addition to the US, Japan is also eyeing the fruit. In a recent visit to Binh Thuan, businesses from Osaka city talked of investments in a system to solve the fly biting problem and assistance in the fruit promotion in the Japanese market.
Next to the dragon fruit in the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD)’s scheme on trade promotion in the US market are longan and rambutan.
The US Department of Agriculture has prioritized the above-mentioned duo out of 10 types of fruit it has intended to import from Vietnam . The US side has also asked the Southern Fruit Research Institute to deploy a project for BlobalGAP standards longan and rambutan production as soon as possible.
VNA
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