Dragon fruit in the market shortly
Seedlings of pitaya, a commodity also known as dragon fruit, will be distributed to farmers in Fiji…Seedlings of pitaya, a commodity also known as dragon fruit, will be distributed to farmers in Fiji, particularly the Western Division by next year.
The pitaya is a perennial climbing cactus of the genus Hylocereus, native to Mexico, Central America and South America. They are currently trialled at the Taiwan Technical Mission Farm in Sigatoka.
Fiji's Deputy Permanent Secretary for Agriculture Jone Sovalawa said it was introduced to Fiji in 2015 and is considered to be a promising remunerative fruit crop: “The fruit has very attractive colour and mellow mouth melting pulp with black edible seed, embedded in the pulp along with tremendously nutritious properties.”
“Today dragon fruit is distributed all over the world, in tropical and subtropical regions. Because of the hardy nature of this fruit crop it can survive adverse climatic conditions of arid and semi-arid regions,” he added.
According to fijisun.com.fj, the fruit is commercially grown in Israel, Vietnam, Nicaragua, Australia, United States of America and Taiwan.