Irradiation costly for dragon fruit exporters

Vietnam

Thursday 23 October 2008

Mr. Tran Ngoc Hiep with his wonderful great tasting Dragon Fruit. Though Vietnam recently shipped its first supplies of dragon fruit to the US, local exporters say high irradiation costs may make it difficult for the fruit to gain a foothold in the market.

The US gave four Vietnamese dragon fruit producers permission to enter its market last July based on several conditions, including requiring irradiation of the fruit to meet safety standards.

All four producers are located in central Binh Thuan Province, which is Vietnam’s dragon fruit cultivation basket accounting for more than 70 percent of the country’s total supplies. Tran Ngoc Hiep, chairman of Binh Thuan Dragon Fruit Association, said radiating the fruit with X-rays was the chief financial concern for local exporters eyeing the US market.

He said the irradiation service offered by HCMC-based Son Son Seafood Processing Company is too pricey at US$1 per kilogram. As Son Son Company is currently the only firm in Vietnam to provide such a service, local dragon fruit producers had no choice but accept this monopolistic pricing, the Saigon Economic Times quoted Nguyen Thuan, deputy chairman of the association, as saying.

Thuan said the high irradiation cost presents a serious obstacle to multiplying exports to the US.

To give a comparison, fruit irradiation costs only around 24 cents per kilogram in Thailand. Tran Thanh Hiep, director of Quan Trung Company – the sole distributor of Vietnamese dragon fruit in the US , said it was difficult for Vietnamese dragon fruit to secure a stable position in the US market with the export price being $3 per kilogram since it is currently priced at between $2 and $2.50 for retail.

The main export markets for Vietnamese dragon fruit have traditionally been China, Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia.