Vietnamese dragon fruit (Photo: VNA)The Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency, the Department of Industry and Trade of southernLong An province, and the trade offices of the Vietnamese Embassies in NewZealand and Australia jointly organised an online consulting session onexporting dragon fruits to Australia and New Zealand recently.
Speaking at the event opening, Vietnamese Ambassador to New Zealand Nguyen VanTrung emphasised the importance of promoting agricultural cooperation,agricultural product trade and market opening for the strategic partnershipbetween Vietnam and New Zealand.
Vietnam wants New Zealand to share its experience and support Vietnam inbuilding an international brand and value chain for the globalcommercialisation of dragon fruit, following the successful model of NewZealand's kiwi fruit, which is recognised worldwide.
Vietnamese trade agencies in Australia and New Zealand shared businesspractices and consumption habits of the regional market and trade promotion ofdragon fruit.
They also suggested development orientations, including diversification ofderivative product lines such as dragon fruit powder, frozen dragon fruit,dried dragon fruit, and dragon fruit juice to reduce pressure in the maincropping season.
Agencies recommended that businesses and localities develop advertising andindustry branding strategies on the nutritional properties of their products toenhance consumer awareness and expand customers in addition to the traditionalAsian customer group.
Deputy director of the provincial Department of Industry and Trade Chau Thi Le expressedher hope that through the session, dragon fruit producers would have moreinformation, knowledge and opportunities to bring dragon fruit to potentialmarkets such as Australia or New Zealand.
Dragon fruit is one of the key plants of the province. Long An ranks second inthe country in terms of planting and harvesting dragon fruit with about 11,822hectares, and the fruiting area is approximately 11,000 hectares.
The provincial dragon fruit exports are mainly fresh and frozen to manymarkets, including China, the Republic of Korea, the US, Japan, Canada, NewZealand, Australia, and some Southeast Asian countries. The Chinese marketaccounts for about 80 percent of export volume.
However, recently, China's import and export management policy, the complicatedpandemic situation, and the increase in dragon fruit growing areas in Chinahave caused many difficulties and losses for Vietnamese growers and exportenterprises.
In addition to consuming and exporting fresh fruit, enterprises in Long Anprovince also deeply process many products from dragon fruit, such as drieddragon fruit, dragon fruit wine, dragon fruit juice, mixed dragon fruit powder,and dragon fruit syrup for domestic and export demand.
The provincial Chau Thanh dragon fruit has also been granted a certificate ofgeographical indication registration by the Intellectual Property of Vietnam.The Tam Vu dragon fruit trademark has been protected in five countries,including the US, France, Japan, Singapore and China./.
VNA
