Prolonged low dragon fruit prices combined with a 40–50% surge in fertilizer and agrochemical costs are pushing many dragon fruit growers in the newly merged Tay Ninh Province, formerly part of Long An Province, into severe financial distress. Farmers are increasingly expressing frustration, exhaustion, and even making painful decisions to cut down orchards that once represented hopes of economic prosperity.

Dragon fruit prices hit rock bottom, farmers in former Long An struggle to survive

Recently, across major dragon fruit-growing regions from Dong Thap to Tay Ninh, growers have been voicing growing concerns over the deteriorating market situation. The brief recovery in prices following the Lunar New Year 2026, when Grade 3 dragon fruit reached VND 22,000–23,000 per kilogram, quickly faded as prices entered another sharp decline.

Currently, bulk-priced red-flesh dragon fruit is selling for only VND 12,000–12,500 per kilogram. For graded products, Grade 3 fruit has dropped to around VND 15,000 per kilogram, while Grade 4 fruit has fallen dramatically to VND 9,000–10,000 per kilogram. More concerningly, white-flesh dragon fruit is now selling at only VND 4,000–5,000 per kilogram in bulk, approximately VND 7,000 lower than the same period last year.

Mr. Le Van Chinh Nho, an orchard owner in An Luc Long Commune, Tay Ninh Province, shared with disappointment: “This dragon fruit crop is essentially a total loss. We are suffering heavy losses because fertilizer and agrochemical costs have risen sharply over the past few months, while selling prices remain extremely low.”

At the former dragon fruit “capital” of Long An, now part of Tay Ninh Province, the atmosphere remains equally gloomy. Mr. Vo Van Khanh from Tan Hoa Commune expressed his frustration: “Dragon fruit farming this year has been disastrous. Export prices to China are now only around VND 10,000 per kilogram. Meanwhile, fertilizer and pesticide prices have increased by 40–50%. Every season, prices keep rising across all agricultural inputs.”

Mr. Khanh currently cultivates nearly three hectares of clean dragon fruit using T-shaped trellis systems, targeting export markets with strict quality requirements. To pursue exports to the European market, he has adopted organic fertilizers for his orchards.

Despite proactively shifting toward organic cultivation to improve product quality, Mr. Khanh remains trapped in losses due to high rejection rates and strict harvest schedules aligned with shipping timetables. Exhausted and discouraged, he admitted: “I’m really losing motivation at this point. I may quit altogether. I’m thinking about switching to another profession this year because staying in this industry has become too exhausting, with no signs of improvement.”

The paradox of rising input costs and falling output prices

Sharing similar concerns, Mr. Nguyen Van Thanh, Director of Van Thanh Cooperative in Tay Ninh, provided deeper insight into the paradox affecting the dragon fruit industry: “Input costs keep rising while output prices continue falling, mainly because we remain overly dependent on the Chinese market.”

According to Mr. Thanh, growers pursuing official export channels to demanding markets such as the United States, Japan, South Korea, and Australia are still maintaining profitability, selling at relatively high prices of around USD 19–20 per five-kilogram carton, equivalent to nearly VND 100,000 per kilogram. However, these volumes remain limited due to issues related to plant variety copyrights and strict quality standards.

The majority of farmers still follow traditional cultivation practices and rely heavily on traders exporting through informal cross-border channels to China.

“China has become much stricter recently. Many shipments have been rejected due to banned chemical residues. Farmers who can control residues are still able to sell, but traditional farming methods are no longer viable. When products flood Chinese warehouses, buyers immediately force prices down and reject shipments, leaving farmers to bear the losses,” Mr. Thanh explained.

Tay Ninh shifts toward high-tech agriculture and VietGAP standards

To preserve what was once considered a “golden crop” of southern Vietnam, shifting production thinking from quantity to quality is now viewed as the only sustainable path forward. In Tay Ninh, efforts to adopt technology and achieve VietGAP and GlobalGAP standards are accelerating in response to export market challenges.

The province continues implementing its high-tech dragon fruit development program, primarily across former Long An areas now merged into Tay Ninh Province. The objective extends beyond upgrading irrigation systems or adopting LED lighting for off-season cultivation. More importantly, the strategy focuses on strict control of pesticide residues and transitioning toward clean production models, eliminating the previous “high-risk” dependence on informal cross-border exports.

Currently, the area dedicated to high-tech dragon fruit cultivation in the former Long An region exceeds 5,700 hectares, approaching the 6,000-hectare target set for the period through 2025. Total dragon fruit cultivation area in the region ranges from 7,800 to 8,500 hectares.

Tay Ninh is gradually reshaping its fruit production landscape through the expansion of high-tech dragon fruit farming areas. The province is focusing on attracting major enterprises to invest in integrated supply chains covering cultivation, harvesting, packing facilities, and frozen storage systems to support official exports to Europe and the Middle East.

The planning and development of certified growing areas with standardized growing area codes (OTAS) are now considered mandatory “entry passes” to help Tay Ninh dragon fruit avoid repeating past cycles of oversupply and emergency market rescue campaigns.

Leaving the dragon fruit-growing regions, one statement from local farmers remains particularly striking: “Clean farming means survival, traditional farming means failure.”

It is becoming increasingly clear that dragon fruit growers must now move beyond outdated production practices and commit to more professional, transparent, and sustainable agricultural models if they hope to avoid witnessing their once-prosperous orchards being cut down in despair.

Source: Bao dien tu Dan Viet