Don’t use Chinese characters and red color on packaging of dragon fruit for export to India

In the online Trade Promoting conference between Vietnam and partners in India and Pakistan in 2021, Mr. Pham Sanh Chau, Ambassador of Vietnam to India, says, India’s market has many potentials for Vietnamese fruit in general and dragon fuit in particular.

In a market of 1.4 billion people, with 60% of the population is vegetarian, daily food is mainly fruits and vegetables. Indians consume 3 kilograms of fruit a month per capita, the country needs around 48 million of fruits a year.

India is still an easy market. That is a favorable condition for Vietnam’s fruits in general and dragon fruit in particular to boost exports to the country.

Mr. Bui Trung Thuong, counselor of Vietnam Trade Office in India, shared, India’s demand for dragon fruit is quite huge because the fruit is good for health, aromatic and rich in nutrition. Currently, India mainly imports dragon fruit from Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and Sri Lanka.

The Ambassador of Vietnam to Pakistan, Mr. Nguyen Tien Phong says, Pakistan imports many agriculture products of Vietnam, but not fruits. Pakistan’s market also has many potentials for Vietnam’s fruit in general and dragon fruit in particular. As India, Pakistan is an easy market and is suitable for cheap goods. Enterprises from Vietnam should explore this market.

Vietnam’s dragon fruit is imported to India from 2014. Up to now, export turnover grows year by year. In the period of 2015-2020, the export turnover increased 10 times, from US$ 1 million in 2015 to nearly US$ 10 million in 2020.

Due to the export capacity of dragon fruit of Vietnam, the turnover is quite modest. Meanwhile, the India’s market is still wide open for Vietnam’s dragon fruit, despite the country has begun grow dragon fruit in many localities.

To boost exporting of dragon fruit to India, localities, enterprises should be more proactive in marketing and promoting dragon fruit in this country, Mr. Bui Trung Thuong says. Enterprises and localities should also develop high quality growing areas, follow fully requirements of the markets, instead of widening more acreages. Once we have quality guaranteed products, it is more advantageous and enduring to develop market, strengthen competitive position.

Mr. Bui Trung Thuong also warns the Vietnamese enterprises community about the less united and inexplicit competition between the dragon fruit export companies. India’s market provides many good chances for Vietnam’s dragon fruit. But many companies are deliberately lowering the price to win customers instead of compete with quality. This way of competition is affecting Vietnam’s companies as a whole community and also the prestige of Vietnam’s dragon fruit.

For the political reason, dragon fruit has another name in India, that is “kamalam”, as dragon fruit is called by the Chinese. That is why Vietnam’s enterprises should not use the name “dragon fruit” for export the fruit to India. Instead, they can use the name in India “kamalam” or even “thanh long” as called in Vietnamese. The Indians are getting familiar with the name “thanh long” of the Vietnamese.

In particular, enterprises should remember do not use the red color and Chinese characters on packaging of dragon fruit for export to India. They should use English characters on packaging as it will bring more goodwill to the Indians and help preventing them thinking of Chinese fruit.

Mr. Vu Ba Phu, the Adminitrator of Department of Trade Promotion under the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) says, dragon fruit has competitive advantages, ranking the first among 11 fruits for export and regularly being in the multibillion US$ group of export commodities in recent years.

Products of Vietnam’s dragon fruit are diverse of kinds, that includes fresh dragon fruit, dried dragon fruit, marshmallow dried dragon fruit, dragon fruit syrup juice, dragon fruit snack, dragon fruit wine, dragon fruit ice cream, dragon fruit grilled chopped fish, dragon fruit bread, etc. Specially, dragon fruit powder (other name is pitahaya powder) is very rich in nutrition and very good for health, often called tropical super food.