Mr. Nguyen Huu Dat, Director of the Center for Plant Quarantine after import II said that this is unprecedented permission for Vietnam fruits. Dragon fruit is long known for containing various pests which are popular in Vietnam and are unknown in US.

   “US allows our dragon fruit to ship directly for irradiation shows that this fruit has earned trust from US market in regards to microorganism and food safety check”  Mr. Dat said.

    Mr. Dat also said, this is a chance to advertise and expand market for Vietnam dragon fruit, because US’s tendency to ease up importing procedures can make other countries to follow suit. Moreover, irradiation in US also helps regulate the price of irradiation in Vietnam. However, Mr. Dat warned “Export companies have to carefully select irradiation companies in US or their products may be disqualified.

   So, besides US issued trademark certification for “Binh Thuan dragon fruit”, this procedure ease-up is promoting farmers spirit and confidence to follow Good Agricultural Practices - GAP. Before this, USPTO US Patent and Trademark Organization issued trademark certification for “Binh Thuan dragon fruit” with protection for word “Bình Thuận”, “Dragon Fruit” and dragon fruit image. This protection consolidates Binh Thuan dragon fruit position in this difficult market, and at the same time preserve prestige and fame of this product.

     Many specialists speculated that Vietnam’s dragon fruit entering markets such as US, EU, Japan, Korea, Chile,.. enhances trust in pest control and food safety.

      Many farmers explained in different reasons why dragon fruit price increases so high, for example export market expanded; prestige and quality rose so price also went up. Especially, the most important reason is that 2011 main season lacked of electricity so farmers focused more onto side season; which squeezed dragon tree dramatically and reduce the quantity of the next season, thus, pushing the price up.