Tran Quoc Trong cannot remember how many times his efforts to turn dragon fruit, whose prices traditionally drop with abundant crops, into wine failed when he tried to make the alcoholic beverage to cope with a price plunge.

A booming crop of dragon fruit, a red-skinned and white-fleshed tropical fruit that is good for health, does not usually mean good news for growers because prices will slump during a supply surplus.
There is no exception for the fruit growers in Long An, a province only 55km from Ho Chi Minh City, where Trong lives.

The man then thought up a way to take advantage of the supply surplus in order to produce something to offset the loss when prices go down, and dragon fruit wine was his choice.
He said the idea of turning the fruit into wine flashed into his mind in 2011, and it took him more than two years and over VND2 billion (US$94,135) to see his manufacturing plant begin working properly in mid-2013.