Dragon fruit exported to Australia grows well despite Covid-19

Dragon fruit is among a few of fresh fruit that get permission to export to Australia and the exportation is doing well even in the Covid-19 epidemic.

A dragon fruit garden in Vietnam.

According to the Vietnam Trade Office in Australia, dragon fruit is the third kind of fresh fruit of Vietnam is ratified to import into Australia, after lychee and mango. The ratification in officially announced in August 24, 2017. Specially, Vietnam is the only country got accepted to export dragon fruit to Australia up to now.

A Vietnamese dragon fruit is being sold at AUD 4,9 at Coles, the leading supermarket chain in Australia, equivalent to VND 80,000. The other supermarkets in Melbourne, Adelaide and Sydney are selling Vietnamese dragon fruit at AUD 9 to AUD 15 per kilogram.

All though being affected heavily by Covid-19 epidemic, the export of Vietnamese dragon fruit is getting a strong boost. In 2020, the dragon fruit export turnover from Vietnam to Australia reached US$ 4.18 million, up 36% compared to 2019. This is a record growth in dragon fruit exports to Australia in recent years.

The Vietnam Trade Office in Australia says that the above results were obtained due to efforts to maintain supply and trade promotion.

In detail, from the beginning of 2020 when the epidemic happened, Australia imposed social distancing and lockdown that made the importers reluctantly with decisions of importing dragon fruit. In that situation, the Vietnam Trade Office in Australia decided to share the risk with Dalat import-export Ltd. (headquarters in Melbourne) when the company imported 5 tons of dragon fruit from Vietnam. The imported fruits were distributed to many states in Australia, sometime in the distance of thousand kilometers. And that made very positive effect in the whole market. The Australians prefer the Vietnamese dragon fruit because of its high quality and the very good smell.

This year, the Vietnam Trade Office in Australia continues marketing and trade promoting the fruit, organized Week of Vietnamese dragon fruit in July 21-27 and another occasion from August 10. The event is organized in time when a container of 10 tons of dragon fruit arrived at port and is distributed by Hoa Australia company to some big distribution systems with young customers in sights.

In the first six months of 2020, Vietnamese dragon fruit exported to Australia is stable in quality, quantity and is sold at good price. The Vietnam Trade Office in Australia says there is still many more chances, potential for export to the market.

To import into Australian market, dragon fruit must meet many strict rules. For import procedures, companies must acquire the valid certification issued by the Australian Department of Agriculture, Water Resources and Environment. And for export procedures, the Plant Protection Department (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Vietnam) quarantines and issues a certificate of no insect infestation and biosecurity controlled for the fruit.

Dragon fruit must also acquire authentication of the origin, proof of produced in Vietnam and exported from Vietnam, in accordance with all the related conditions and bilateral cooperation programs. Specially, fresh Vietnamese dragon fruit must be treated by steam heat method in 40 minutes and at temperature of 46.5 degrees Celsius, 90% humidity or above at some processing facility approved by the Plant Protection Department, before transported to Australia.

Dragon fruit is one among other main exported fruits of Vietnam, with export revenue reached US$ 1.25 billion in 2019 and US$ 1.121 billion in 2020. In the first six months of 2021, Vietnam exports 1.2 million tons of dragon fruit, up 138% compared to the same period of 2020.

Mekong Delta provinces will harvest about 580,000 tonnes of dragon fruit in the coming time, about 48,000 tonnes of dragon fruits need to be consumed monthly, said Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Quoc Doanh recently.

Mr. Hoang Trung, head of the Plant Protection Department says that Vietnam's fruit exports remains good in the forseable future.