The New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research (PRF) isworking with the Southern Fruit Research Institute (SOFRI) to implement aproject on enhancing the quality of dragon fruit grown in the MekongDelta province of Tien Giang.
The project, which willbe carried out from 2013 to 2017, aims to develop a sustainable dragonfruit farming model and apply advanced post-harvest technology to expandthe outlets for this kind of fruit.
In 2013, the PRF willdisburse 113,350 NZD (nearly 89,000 USD) for SOFRI to run trainingcourses for farmers, upgrade laboratories, complete a quality evaluationsystem, and conduct research on post harvest preservation methods.
Dragon fruit is cultivated on approximately 3,000 hectares inTien Giang’s Cho Gao district. Many local farmers have become well offthanks to the fruit’s high export value.
The province plansto increase this farming acreage to 4,500 hectares by 2015 along withspeeding up trade promotion and expanding overseas outlets.
The SOFRI plays an important role in transferring agriculturaltechnology to Tien Giang’s farmers to grow dragon fruit of high quality.
The institute has successfully crossbred two new varietiesof dragon fruit with red and purple flesh, with the red-flesh fruit nowcultivated on large scale and fetching high economic value on themarket.-VNA