Vietnam's Dragon Fruit Exports Fall to a Decade Low as Demand Shifts to the UAE and Thailand

For most of the last decade, "dragon fruit" and "Vietnam" have been nearly synonymous in global trade. That dominance is now visibly cracking. According to trade data reported by Produce Report, Vietnam's dragon fruit exports totalled just US$485 million in the first eleven months of 2025 — a 0.8% year-on-year decline, and the lowest export value since 2014. At its 2018 peak, the category was worth roughly US$1.3 billion. In less than a decade, Vietnam's flagship fruit export has lost well over half its value.

The decline is not evenly spread. China remains Vietnam's largest dragon fruit buyer by far, taking in over US$302 million — about 62.2% of total exports — in those same eleven months, but that was itself down 4.5% year-on-year. The reason is structural rather than cyclical: China has expanded its own dragon fruit cultivation to roughly 1.6 million metric tons a year, steadily replacing imported fruit with domestic supply. Vietnam has also effectively ceded the North American white-fleshed dragon fruit market, with shipments to the US and Canada reduced to a trickle as Mexico captures that demand instead.

Where the growth actually is

The picture looks different once you move past China and North America. A separate report from RetailNews Asia, covering early 2026 shipments, found Vietnam's dragon fruit exports were actually up 14% year-on-year to US$108.5 million for the period — but the growth was concentrated almost entirely in two markets outside its traditional base. Exports to Thailand rose 2.7-fold to US$9.2 million, and exports to the UAE grew 57% to US$3.3 million. Over the same window, shipments to the US fell another 39%, and China's purchases grew only 5%, to US$66.5 million — nowhere near enough to offset the structural pressure described above.

Put together, the two data sets tell a consistent story: Vietnam's legacy dragon fruit trade (China, North America) is shrinking or plateauing, while real new demand is building in the Gulf and Southeast Asia. That is demand for the fruit itself, not demand for Vietnamese supply specifically — and it is exactly the kind of opening that a newer origin country can step into, provided it can match the fruit quality, cold-chain handling and consistency that buyers in those markets already expect from Vietnam.

India's emerging role

Notably, the Produce Report analysis names India directly as one of the countries "gradually emerging as a significant producer," with an estimated 3,000 to 4,000 hectares now under dragon fruit cultivation — still a fraction of Vietnam's scale, but a real and growing base rather than a speculative one. India's dragon fruit acreage has expanded across states such as Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka and parts of the Northeast over the past several years, driven in part by state horticulture department support.

Business takeaway: none of this means fresh dragon fruit exports from India are an easy win. Vietnam's slowdown in China and North America is a supply-glut and market-maturity story, not proof that buyers everywhere have stopped wanting the fruit — in fact Thai and Gulf demand is doing the opposite. For Indian exporters, the realistic opportunity is in the markets where demand is still genuinely growing (the UAE and wider Gulf, and Southeast Asia) rather than chasing China, where Vietnam is already losing ground to domestic production. Winning that opportunity will come down to the basics that matter for any perishable fresh-fruit export: consistent sizing and ripeness grading, reliable cold-chain logistics from farm to port to destination, and packaging that protects the fruit's appearance over transit — not just having fruit to sell. Buyers evaluating new dragon fruit origins, including those sourcing fresh dragon fruit through SATA GreenX Global Exim, should expect exactly these questions to come up early in supplier qualification.