1)Market Size:

The global dragon fruit market has witnessed significant growth over the years, driven by increasing
consumer awareness of its nutritional value and rising demand for exotic fruits. The market size is
influenced by several factors such as production, consumption patterns, trade, and market trends.

In terms of market value, the global dragon fruit market was valued at approximately USD 1.8 billion
in 2020, as reported by Research and Markets. The market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 13.5%
during the forecast period (2021-2026), reaching a value of around USD 4.1 billion by 2026. The
increasing adoption of healthy eating habits, growing demand for natural and organic food products,
and the fruit's visually appealing characteristics are key factors driving the market's growth.

2)Regional Analysis for the demand:

1) Asia market: Asia has the largest numbers of consumers of dragon fruit, especially in the Chinese
community, due to the belief in the good fortune brought by the dragon fruit’s name, shapes, and
colours. Consumers in Asia, particularly China, buy dragon fruit mainly for fire-worship, so they often
focus on the form of dragon fruit. However, Japanese does not like the big dragon fruit; they value
the flavour more than the size.

2) European market: The European market is the world's leading importer of fresh fruits and
vegetables and quite open to new products. Therefore, although the dragon fruit is a relatively new
and not widely advertised, the price is high, but still very promising and attracting more and more
consumers in the continent. With reduction in the cost and further enhancement in the nutritional
value, dragon fruit will certainly reach most of the population in European countries.

3) US market: Dragon fruit is traditional good for Asian consumers in the US. Due to the high Asian
and Vietnamese communities, demand for dragon fruit is relatively high. For other ethnic groups,
dragon fruit is relatively new and only known in the high–end market segment. However, analysts say
this is a fast–growing market in the near future, as farm owners in Florida and California have begun
planting dragon fruit to meet market demand.

https://www.thepharmajournal.com/archives/2023/vol12issue1/PartB/11-12-660-685.pdf
Asia-Pacific Market Share Analysis:

The Asia-Pacific region accounts for the largest market share in the global dragon fruit market, both
in terms of production and consumption. The region benefits from abundant availability of land,
favorable climate, and established cultivation practices, making it a major producer and exporter of
dragon fruit.

Vietnam is the leading producer and exporter of dragon fruit in Asia-Pacific, contributing significantly
to the regional market. According to the General Department of Vietnam Customs, the country
exported approximately 494,000 tons of dragon fruit in 2020, with a total export value of around
USD 660 million.

Dragon fruit production in India

Gujarat, Karnataka and Maharashtra are the leading producers contributing about 70% of India’s
dragon fruit production the water-scarce areas of Kutch in Gujarat, Northern Karnataka, and Western
Maharashtra are major dragon fruit growing regions of the country. Overall, southern and western
states are contributing a major share to the production of dragon fruit since they have been growing
dragon fruit for the last 5-8 years. For example, more than 600 farmers from Karnataka alone have
taken up dragon fruit cultivation in the last five years after seeing the performance of the fruit. In
Karnataka, the area under dragon fruit cultivation was about 8-10 ha during 2012, amplified to about
500 ha in 2020 and it is likely to reach around 5000 ha in the next five years. Presently over 200
farmers in Gujarat's Kutch are cultivating this fruit in approx. 800 ha of land.

Indian Market Analysis:

Dragon fruit cultivation in India has witnessed significant growth due to various factors such as
government support, increasing demand, and the fruit's adaptability to the Indian climate. According
to the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare of India, the area under dragon fruit cultivation in
the country increased from 170 hectares in 2016-17 to around 3,000 hectares in 2020-21.

https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1906572

In terms of consumption, dragon fruit has gained popularity in major cities across India, including
Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, and Chennai. The growing health consciousness among consumers, along
with the fruit's vibrant appearance and nutritional benefits, has contributed to its increasing demand
in the Indian market.

Govt initiatives: The Indian government has also taken initiatives to promote dragon fruit cultivation
and enhance the market. For instance, under the Atma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan (Self-Reliant India
Initiative), various subsidies and schemes have been introduced to support dragon fruit farmers,
including financial assistance for cultivation, establishment of processing units, and marketing
support.

Union Agriculture Secretary Manoj Ahuja said the demand for the fruit is high in domestic and global
markets because of its nutritional values. “Fifty thousand hectares in five years is an achievable
target. The demand for the fruit will remain. Prices for farmers will also be good. The benefit is that
this fruit can be cultivated in degraded and rainfed land,” Mr. Ahuja said. He added that the Centre
will assist States in providing good quality planting materials to farmers.
Talking to The Hindu on the sidelines of the conclave, he said the Centre can also provide specific
target-based help to States and farmers under the Mission for Integrated Development of
Horticulture (MIDH). “Processing infrastructure can also be developed with the help of the Food
Processing Ministry. Its cultivation will be beneficial for farmers and consumers. It is a win-win
situation for all,” he added.
According to the authorities, and the Indian Council of Agriculture Research, the fruit plant doesn’t
need much water and can be cultivated on dry land, too. Horticulture Commissioner Prabhat Kumar
told The Hindu that dragon fruit is now sold at a price of ₹400 per kg and the effort is to make it
available to consumers for ₹100 per kg. “The cost of cultivation is initially high. But the plant doesn’t
need productive land; it gives maximum production from non-productive, less fertile area. This is
beneficial for a lot of farmers,” Dr. Kumar said.
The Centre plans to come up with an annual action plan to motivate more State governments. At the
moment, Mizoram tops among the States that cultivate this fruit, which is indigenous to Mexico and
is now produced mainly in Vietnam. The export of the fruit has made a huge contribution to
Vietnam’s GDP. “All the States in India except cold areas are suitable for dragon fruit plants. Market
demand so high as production is less,” G. Karunakaran of the Indian Institute of Horticultural
Research said.
Dr Karunakaran added that India is now importing about 15,491 tonnes of dragon fruits and has
potential to match the production of China, where cultivation of the fruit takes place in 40,000
hectares, and Vietnam, which grows the fruit in 60,000 hectares. “The initial investment high. But it
gives fast returns within a year. The red and pink varieties of the fruit give better yield,” Dr.
Karunakaran said at the conclave.

As dragon fruit cultivation and consumption continue to grow in India, the market is expected to
witness significant expansion. The increasing focus on healthy lifestyles, the rise of the urban middle
class, and the promotion of dragon fruit as a superfood are key factors driving the market's growth in
the country.

https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/agriculture/centre-to-promote-dragon-fruit-cultivation-in-
50000-hectares/article65612440.ece

3)Dragon fruit economics

Normally, fruits formation in Dragon fruit begins, 18-26 months after plantation. The plants are
grown in cemented poles normally as they need support to maintain erect position. Poles are
generally cemented to provide longevity and minimize any damage of the plant. In one acre, there
are 300 poles roughly and one pole generally yields around 15 to 25 kg of fruits. Practically it has
been observed that Yield of 60/80 kgs per pole is possible. Rates for the fruits fetch the market for
Rs.300 to 400 per kg. The general Farm rate is between Rs. 125 to 200 per kg. These data are for a
well maintained farm. It may be noted that if Night Lighting method is also done then is can
increased quantity of fruits. Therefore the calculation will work as:

One Acre x 300 poles x 15 kg x Rs.125 = Rs. 5.63 Lakhs per Acre per Year approximately

All the numbers have been taken on the lowest (minimum) side.

The average yield is 5–6 tonne per acre while market price is around Rs. 200/ per kg. Cost in to be
incurred for the poles, rings, cow dung, and fertilizer in every 4 months. Then there are labour cost in
addition to expenses for pruning and irrigation (preferably drip irrigation) and also of netting for
shielding the plant from birds. The recurring cost has been worked out around Rs 80,000 to One Lakh
per tonne, by successful growers. A fixed cost of pole, ring, and drip irrigation is to be considered and
the average expense for these is nearly Rs 25,000/ per tonne. It takes 18-26 months (1.5- 2 years) for
harvesting, and between months of August to December. Therefore deducting all expenses net profit
comes closer to Rs 4.50 lacs per acre over first 2 years.

https://krishijagran.com/agripedia/dragon-fruit-market-in-india-business-prospects-quite-healthy/

4)For supply chain related information:

https://connect2india.com/Dragon-Fruit

this link contains the contact details of established and active online suppliers of dragon fruit which
will be helpful in gaining primary information about the supply chain, consumer demand and also
some specific market dynamics.

5) TRENDS OF DRAGON FRUIT BY BIG DATA ANALYTICS

1. Google Trends
1.1. A new index is introduced for consumer search behaviour by Google using Google Trends
data that covers all Google Searches related to any topic, for example, dragon fruit. Search
can be made worldwide or for a specific country. In terms of time, the search could be made
for as early as one hour and as long as the past decade.
Time-series graphs over Google trends provide the details about a given topic in terms of a
score of 100. A score of a full 100 indicates peak popularity about the term searches. A
score of 50 means half popularity as compared to 100 scores. 0 score means that sufficient
data were not available during that period. For dragon fruit, it was observed that in the past
5 years (from May 2018 to May 2023), maximum Google searches were made in the month
of March 2020. The possible reasons were the announcement of lockdowns worldwide and
people became more conscious about their health, and a global increase in sales of Dragon
fruit was observed.
 Impact Factor (JCC)-8.3083: The impact factor (IF) or journal impact factor (JIF) of
an academic journal is a scientometric index calculated by Clarivate that reflects the yearly
mean number of citations of articles published in the last two years in a given journal, as
indexed by Clarivate's Web of Science.
NAAS Rating-4.13: The NAAS score is used as a measure of the quality and impact of
research articles, with higher scores indicating higher quality and impact. The score is
calculated based on factors such as the number of times the article has been cited, the
reputation of the journal in which it was published, and the reputation of the authors.

1.2. Heat map for dragon fruit obtained from Google Trends
Higher colour intensity (for example dark blue or score 70-100) shows areas with higher
Google search about a particular trend. Then areas in light blue colour (having a score
between30-70) represent the medium level of Google search. Areas with no colour
represent very little Google Search about that trend (score less than 30).

1.3. Related queries obtained from Google trends for dragon fruit
Google Trends also provides information about related topics (related topics along with the
main topic) and related queries (questions asked by the users in relation to the main topic).
In figure 4 we can see the topmost related searches which come under breakout category
on Google trends and more than 100% top related queries about dragon fruit are recently
trending on different Google trend platforms. This analytics shows that there is a potential
demand for dragon fruit all over the world market.
2. Talkwalker
A study published in TransStellar on DRAGON FRUIT: A PROMISING CROP WITH A GROWING FOOD
MARKET THAT CAN PROVIDE PROFITABLE RETURNS TO FARMERS
In that study, they have used editorial and social media data gathered by “Talkwalker” software. They were
especially interested in a few dimensions. First, they wanted to study ‘what will be the most important
editorial and social media channel’ and hypothesized that people would reach out to their social network
to share feelings and to seek public support: hence they believe that Twitter would be the most famous
channel to reach through social networks., as some demographic segments would be the target (more
susceptible to get hit by COVID-19 and would have started consuming dragon fruit), especially older
people, we expected people around that age to do more searches. In addition, they expect that people
from certain fields or occupations (could be journalism, medicine, business executives, etc.) would be most
active about dragon fruit in related conservations due to its adverse impact., as people would be part of a
group or nation, they would seek to learn from what other people, groups and nations are doing (social
comparison in terms of hashtag trends or popular social media themes).

2.1 Time series and sentiment analysis charts for dragon fruit from Talkwalker
“Talkwalker'' is a mining tool as it requires a keyword as a start. The metrics on the dashboard include
overall conversation, engagement, sentiment scores, and potential reach. It also supports
conversation and sentiment trend visualization over time. One of the highlights of this tool is there are
many dimensions users can choose to slice the result.
For example, users can filter the result based on media type, location, language, devices, sentiment,
and demographics. In addition, it also supports keyword comparison, which facilitates competitor
analysis Media platforms like Twitter, online news, blogs, magazines, YouTube, news releases, TV/radio
and VKontakte have been considered for this research. Quantitative behavioural data, including
Twitter tweets, online news, blogs, newspapers, forums, news agencies, magazines, YouTube, press
releases, television and radio, and other forums have been used to collect and assess public opinion
data about the fruits of the dragon.
Talkwalker analysis about Dragon fruit revealed that in a duration of one week (i.e., 15 Sep’20-21
Sep’20), people have talked about 38% positive things and 19% negative things about Dragon fruit
Sentiment analysis which is also known as opinion mining, is a type of language treatment to monitor
the mood of the public about a specific product. It also consists of building a system for gathering and
reviewing opinions about the product made in blog posts, comments, comments, or tweets. Analysing
feelings can help in a number of ways. For example, marketing helps to gauge the success of an
advertising campaign or the launch of a new product., determine what versions of a product or service
are popular, and even determine what demographic characteristics like or don't like. The difference
between analysing feelings in editorial media and social media (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube) is that the
text is generally brief., a sentence not exceeding 140 characters in the case of Twitter. In this study,
consumer preferences regarding Dragon fruits were analysed.

A similar study will be done by us and the results can be analyzed to know the consumer behavior.