The production cost of each kilo of dragon fruit is VND10,000, however, at present, each kilo is sold at just VND2,000-3,000.

Le Van Long from Long Hung Village, Chau Thanh District, said that his family expects to harvest around 14 tonnes of dragon fruit per hectare. With the price of VND3,000 per kilo, they would equate to a loss of VND50 million (USD2,155).

Truong Thi Bich Nga from Chau Thanh District said that she had harvested six tonnes of dragon fruit, but one of them was substandard, causing her big losses.

Nguyen Quoc Trinh, chairman of Long An Dragon Fruit Association, said that around 26,000 tonnes of dragon fruit in the province needed to be harvested from now until the Lunar New Year with the majority to be exported to China. 

He proposed that local authorities need to work with China to ask the country to provide Vietnam with warning of import and export policy changes 15 days in advance.

Thinh also suggested boosting domestic dragon fruit sales, particularly through supermarkets.

Thousands of container trucks transporting Vietnamese farm produce, including fresh fruit, are currently stranded at border gates with China due to the country’s tighter control over goods for Covid-19 prevention.