Local enterprise helps consume dragon fruit amid growing concerns over coronavirus

With the purpose of assisting local farmers to deal with dragon fruit output after China has halted imports and exports of goods due to coronavirus, Kien Kien private Company (Ham Thuan Nam district-Binh Thuan province) on February 3 decided to purchase dragon fruit for cold storage.

Processing dragon fruit before keeping in cold storage

As of yesterday evening (February 4), about 1,000 tons of fresh dragon fruit were collected with the price between VND 5,000 and 7,000, and 400 tons were preserved in the company’s refrigerated warehouses to wait for export. According to Director Dinh Thi Kien, the company has 2 cold storage facilities with the combined capacity of 2,000 tons. It is expected that the fruit can be shipped to China via official export channel within a couple of weeks.

Beside 200 permanent workers, the firm has recruited hundreds of seasonal labors to cope with a large quantity of products. Statistics of functional agancies show that nearly 100,000 tons of dragon fruit in Binh Thuan  are waiting for being exported to China, and local authorities are boosting efforts to seek for solutions, including mobilizing enterprises to help fruit growers store their fruits in refrigerated facilities to export to China in the coming time.