On August 26, the first shipment of more than 600 kilos of Philippines premium dragon fruit landed in Richmond City, British Columbia, Canada, through the fruit and vegetable importer Pahoa Produce Ltd. In Canada, dragon fruit is currently pegged at $7.99 a pound.
While packing the freshly picked fruits in a box produced by the Refmad Farms in Paayas village, Edita Aguinaldo-Dacuycuy, popularly known as a multi-awarded dragon fruit lady of the Philippines for leading the way in advancing dragon fruit production in the country, beams with gladness that finally one of her greatest dreams is now a reality.
Edita’s daughter Mildred said they hope this is now the start of “something big” in the industry to benefit organized dragon fruit growers in the country.
Since 2006, the mother and daughter tandem worked their way to develop the pioneering dragon fruit plantation and resort into what it is now.
Starting as a pocket-size garden planted with barely few cuttings of dragon fruit at the Dacuycuy’s residence in Pasuquin, Ilocos Norte, this has grown into over 30-hectare dragon fruit plantation in Burgos town owned by the Dacuycuy family.
Other farmer co-operators and adopters followed suit and the dragon fruit industry gained ground in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao over the past 10 years.
Aside from fresh fruits sold to consumers, other value adding products now come with dragon fruit: ice cream, energy tea, cookies, jam, wine and soap bars.
Most recently, Refmad Farms has developed an all natural and organic dragon fruit freeze dried extract powder, which can be used for smoothies, teas or foods.
