The delagation visit a unit producing dragon fruit wine in Binh Thuan (Photo: VNA)Hanoi (VNA) - The Vietnam Cooperative Alliance has had a meeting withthe People's Committee of the south-central province of Binh Thuan on thedevelopment of growing, processing and exporting in the province by 2025.
The project is developed by the Vietnam Cooperative Alliance (VCA), theprovincial people's committee and the Lavifood Joint Stock Company tocontribute to the sustainable development of the dragon fruit production chain.
It also targets to improve economic efficiency for businesses, cooperatives andbusinesses, while increasing competitiveness and expanding dragon fruitconsumption in Binh Thuan province.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has identified dragon fruitas the first among 11 fruits with competitive advantage in Vietnam.
Nguyen Ngoc Bao, VCA Chairman, said that nowhere was there a large dragon fruitgrowing area like in Binh Thuan province.
This is a great advantage to build a chain of planting, processing andexporting dragon fruits, he said.
However, in order to implement the project effectively, Bao asked the provinceto speed up mechanisation and application of technical advances in dragon fruitproduction; ensure infrastructure such as electricity, water and roads forfruit production areas.
The province needed to focus on producing organic dragon fruit and developing aproduction roadmap to meet the needs of market diversification, he added.
Binh Thuan has more than 30,600 hectares of dragon fruit with an output of morethan 640,000 tonnes last year, said Phan Van Tan, Deputy Director of theprovincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.
The province has more than 10,300 hectares and 450 packing facilities meetingVietGAP standards and seven units were granted certificates of safe dragonfruit production under GlobalGAP standards with an area of about 387 hectaresby last month.
The province currently has 35 cooperatives and one cooperative allianceproducing dragon fruits.
Binh Thuan dragon fruit has been exported to 17 countries such as India, Chinaand Malaysia.
After the meeting, the VCA and relevant agencies will submit to the PrimeMinister and ministries and branches to resolve difficulties and problemsregarding mechanisms and policies to support and promote sustainabledevelopment of a dragon fruit production chain./.
VNA
