Rumors have been circulating in Vietnam about Chinese traders looking to buy dragon fruit leaves. According to the rumor this was causing farmers across the country to chop down their dragon fruit trees to harvest the leaves for a quick payday. Authorities in the Sothern Vietnamese province of Long An however, have denied such claims stating that they are baseless.
Le Van Hoang, director of the provincial agriculture department confirmed it is true that some farmers have been chopping down their dragon fruit crops but not for the reasons the rumor suggests.
“In fact, these farmers wanted to switch from white-flesh dragon fruit to the red-flesh one, so they had to clear their existing crops,” Hoang explained. “Most of the cleared trees were old, so farmers hoped replacing them with new plants would result in better yields in the coming crops.”
