Binh Thuan in effort to maintain the brand name of dragon fruit

In domestic markets, most of customers can not distinguish dragon fruit planted in Binh Thuan from one grown in other provinces. According to a customs officer at Tan Thanh and Po Chai border gates, all of trucks and containers loaded dragon fruit going across the border have long declared origin of dragon fruit from Binh Thuan while the supply of fruit is sourced from Binh Thuan, Tien Giang, Ong An, Dong Nai … For this reason,  a project stamping geographical indications on Binh Thuan dragon fruit has been carried out by BDA under the support of the provincial authorities with the purpose of protecting Binh Thuan dragon fruit in circulation at domestic and internation markets.

At the first phase of implementation, the project has faced many problems and difficulties, both from dragon fruit production facilities and their business partners. After two years with the active role of BDA, 6 local businesses have joined the project  with more than 40 millions of geographical indication stamps have been  issued and sticked to the fruits so far. Fruits stamped “Binh Thuan dragon fruit” have been on sale in many supermarkets such as: Lotte Mart, Big C, Co.opMart, Citimart, wholesale markets in Hanoi and Northern provinces, as well as in many countries and territories as; China, Chinese Hong Kong, india, Dubai, the U.S, Canada, Singapore, Malaysia, Japan … It is important that only dragon fruits grown under the VietGap or Global Gap standards are stamped geographical indication “Binh Thuan dragon fruit”.

With the successful implementation  of this project, 5/6 participating enterprises will keep on using geographical indication stamps to reinforce the reputation and trade marks of their products  as one of critical factor for the  sustainable development of local specialties, and they are hoping that more businesses will take part in stamping geographical indications on dragon fruits for long-term and valuable benefits.

Phuong Lan (Source: Binh Thuan Online)