At present, price of a good dragon fruit is VND3,000-5,000 a kilogram while normal kind fetches VND500-700 a kilogram. Farmers said this price is lowest during two recent years.
Nobody buys diseased fruit; consequently, farmers used fruit as animal feeding.
Looking at over 3,000 plants with ripen dragon fruits, farmer Nguyen Thi An in Ham Lien Commune in Ham Thuan Bac District said that she had been on the run all day to beg traders to buy the fruit but all traders turned down my proposal; accordingly, ten tons of my family’s fruits must be thrown away.
Likewise, farmer Nguyen Xuan Hoan in Ham My Commune is laughing out of the other side of your mouth because no trader proposed buying his nearly 2,000 dragon fruits.
Farmers had to cut off ripen fruits in the biggest dragon fruit lands in communes Ham Thuan Bac, Ham Thuan Nam, Ham Tan for preparation of next crop.
Some traders explained that last time, they bought the fruit at high price of VND20,000-23,000 a kilogram but low consumption leads to high inventories.
Currently, farmers are growing dragon fruits on over 27,000 hectares in Binh Thuan Province; most of them are exported to China in small amount.
