Dragon fruit has grown in popularity in recent years. It is the fifth-famous tropical fruit from Asia behind lychee, longan, banana, and mango. The majority of dragon fruit on the Chinese market comes from Vietnam. The import volume reached 533 thousand tons in 2017 and exceeded 500 thousand tons per year in the last five years. The surface area devoted to dragon fruit production in China expanded in the last few years. Incomplete data shows that the surface area already exceeds 40 thousand hectares.
The Chinese dragon fruit harvest season begins every year in May and lasts until November. This is identical to the harvest season in Vietnam. The domestic production favors red dragon fruit over white dragon fruit, while the Vietnamese production consists mainly of white dragon fruit. As for product quality, new product varieties in Guangxi exceed dragon fruit imported from Vietnam in fruit flavor, ripeness, and freshness.
While many kinds of fruit face difficult sales or even unmarketable conditions, dragon fruit enjoyed smooth sales in the first half of this year, although the overall price was lower than last year. There was also an obvious divergence between prices. The market supply of dragon fruit increased in late June and the price subsequently decreased. Production areas in Hainan and Guangxi reached peak supply in the second half of July. At the same time, many other kinds of summer fruit enter the market between July and September. The market overflows with large volumes of various kinds of fruit, which gives consumers many choices. The price of dragon fruit is not expected to increase significantly.
Source: china-fruit.com.cn
