How they grow dragon fruit in Vietnam

Dragon fruit production in Vietnam is different in a number of ways when compared to the Philippines. In the Philippines, dragon fruit farmers are usually on their own growing the fruit crop on limited farm lots.

IRRIGATED DRAGON FRUIT – In Vietnam, particularly in Long An province, the dragon fruits are irrigated. Water passes through canals between rows as well as between hills in the rows. That, together with adequate fertilization, makes the plants very robust and productive. In the Philippines, the editor of this page has not seen a dragon fruit plantation with similar irrigation. In fact, some Filipinos believe that because dragon fruit is a cactus, irrigation is not necessary. This picture shows that dragon fruit loves moisture.
 

The bigger ones in the Philippines like Refmad Farm of Edita Dacuycuy in Burgos, Ilocos Norte, grow their dragon fruit on about 10 hectares or a bit more. In other places like Pangasinan, Cavite and elsewhere, the area planted may not exceed 10 hectares. Many are growing their dragon fruit on even less than a hectare.

In contrast, one farm that we visited in Long An province in Vietnam has a plantation of 100 hectares. In the adjoining areas, other farmers are growing no less than 700 hectares. Thus the visitor will see nothing but dragon fruit as far as the eyes can see.

Our guide, Michael Nguyen Dihn Le, a financial and investment expert, recounted that several years back the place used to be rice land. A feasibility study, however, showed that dragon fruit could be a more profitable crop to grow, hence the shift.

In the Philippines, many people believe that dragon fruit, being a cactus, is afraid of water. In Long An, we have seen that dragon fruit loves adequate moisture in the soil. We have seen canals between rows and between hills in the rows where irrigation water flows. We have also seen sacks of organic fertilizer distributed along the rows ready for application.

ADVANTAGES – There are a number of advantages when a certain crop is grown by farmers in big commercial volume in a certain locality. For one, the government can extend help in developing markets outside the country. Adequate financing could be more accessible. For another reason, investors might be encouraged to put up processing plants because they are assured of enough materials for processing.

With the new technology called IQF or Instant Quick Freeze, there are excellent possibilities for the export of quick-frozen dragon fruit. That is now being done in sweet corn, baby corn, snack soybean and various vegetables in Vietnam. The Antesco, a big company in An Giang province which we also visited has a capacity of quick-freezing 12.5 tons of fruits and other crops per hour.

The advantage of IQF is that the commodity is frozen in just a matter of 3 to 4 minutes compared to one hour that it takes in blast-freezing. Thus, when the quick-frozen product is exported, the freshness and nutrients are retained. When packed together, the pieces of quick-frozen products don’t stick together. And when thawed they don’t turn soggy. Thus aside from exporting whole fresh fruits of dragon fruit, ready-to-eat slices could be quick-frozen for the world market.

In marketing, the farmers when grouped together have a better bargaining power when dealing with traders. They can negotiate for a  reasonable price that will assure them a profitable return on investment.

In a previous forum that we attended in Vietnam, we learned that rice farmers had a better bargaining power with the traders when they were clustered into groups cultivating about 500 hectares each. As a group they were able to obtain an assured price for their harvest from the association of rice exporters in Vietnam.

Khoa Le

Source: Manila Bulletin