Long An: Discuss solutions to rescue nearly 30,000 tons of dragon fruits

On February 5, Vice Chairman of Long An Provincial People's Committee - Pham Van Canh, Director of Department of Industry and Trade - Le Minh Duc chaired a conference with Departments of Industry and Trade of provinces and Ho Chi Minh City, enterprises, warehouses that buy dragon fruits to find solutions to consume dragon fruits due to the impact of acute respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV).

The un-consumed dragon fruit production from the end of January to the end of February 2020 is about 30,000 tons

The area of dragon fruits in the whole province is about 11,826 hectares, of which 9,587 hectares are producing fruits with an output of 320,000 tons. Recently, the main market for dragon fruits is China, accounting for 70 - 80 percent; the remaining markets include Thailand, Singapore, Korea, Europe, USA, Canada, Japan, Malaysia, Dubai, Newzealand, India. India, Australia, etc. and domestic consumption. Exports by the unofficial way still account for a relatively high proportion.

Due to the impact of the acute respiratory disease caused by 2019-nCoV, the un-consumed dragon fruit production from the end of January to the end of February 2020 is about 30,000 tons. In particular, the amount of inventory is about 2,000 tons; about 28,000 tons have not been harvested.

According to the Chairman of Long An Dragon Fruit Association - Nguyen Quoc Trinh, the association had a meeting with the warehouse owners to reduce the purchasing price to 10,000 VND per kg to minimize the damage to the warehouses, traders and gardeners. However, due to the amount of dragon fruit is still too large, some warehouses do not purchase.

At the conference, the Department of Industry and Trade of provinces and cities such as Ho Chi Minh and Can Tho cities shared the difficulties of Long An province and supported "rescue" dragon fruits through domestic consumption by retail businesses. However, all inventories cannot be "rescued"; the businesses also require products that meet food safety, VietGap, Global Gap standards. Domestic consumption will be very low. Moreover, jackfruit, durian, rambutan, etc. also have difficulties in trading with China.

Besides, another solution for consumption is the drying of dragon fruit.

Director of Department of Industry and Trade of Long An Province - Le Minh Duc said that, currently, because there is no specific contract, the export of agricultural products to China is risky, especially dragon fruits. He recommended businesses, cooperatives and farmers to have closely consumption contracts. In particular, the sustainable solution is to organize production in the direction of linking and food safety in accordance with VietGAP and GlobalGAP standards to avoid dependence on the main market.

Vice Chairman of Long An Provincial People's Committee - Pham Van Canh assigned Department of Industry and Trade to continue working closely with Long An Dragon Fruit Association to grasp the situation, report to the provincial leaders and the Ministry of Industry and Trade to promptly direct the next solutions; actively connect businesses in the province that perform deep processing; focus on domestic consumption and exporting fresh fruits to markets outside China to reduce losses to farmers./.