Much has been said about Vietnam closing in on Bangladesh’s long-undisputed number two spot in the global apparel market.
But there is another product in which Vietnam is the leading exporter and Bangladesh has a good shot at knocking it about with the Southeast Asian nation: dragon fruit.
The fetching-looking hot pink fruit with a crown of curly vibrant greenish petal and white -- or sometimes, purple -- flesh speckled with tiny black seeds requires very little water and flourishes in hot weather, making it a perfect fit for Bangladeshi climactic conditions.
The fruit, which belongs to the cacti family and is native to Central America, was brought to Vietnam by French settlers in the 19th century and its commercial cultivation did not begin until the 1980s.
Today, it has now gone on to bring home one-third of the country’s $3.7 billion fruit and vegetable export receipts.
In the first ten months of 2020, dragon fruit exports fetched upwards of $906.7 million for Vietnam, which is 36.3 per cent of the country’s total receipts from fruit and vegetable exports during the period, according to data from its ministry of industry and trade.
Thanks to its cocktail of health benefits and curious look, the fruit has been hyped up over the last decade. Between 2020 and 2025, the global dragon fruit market is projected to grow at 3.7 per cent per annum, with robust demand from China and the US.
Other than Vietnam, it is commercially produced in Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan, Sri Lanka, China, Israel and Central America.
In Bangladesh, cultivation of the fruit began in fiscal 2014-15 on five hectares of land, according to Mehedi Masood, post-project director of the agriculture ministry’s Year-Round Fruit Production for Nutrition Improvement Project.
The fruit is already turning out to be a profitable crop for the 25,000 farmers engaged in its cultivation. So much that it is attracting educated youths to the business.
About 99 per cent of the growers are educated and 80 per cent of them are youths, according to the agriculture ministry.