On May 28, Vietnam officially became the first and only country to export dragon fruit to New Zealand when the Official Assurance Program was signed in Hanoi by New Zealand Ambassador to Vietnam Mr. Haike Manning and Director General Nguyen Xuan Hong from the Plant Protection Department of the Vietnam's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Official Assurance Program is a specific project designed to map out the standard operating procedures prior to the commencement of the export process itself. This was done to guarantee that only the best quality of dragon fruits are exported from Vietnam and imported to New Zealand. This includes bio-security, health and other pre-requisites.

But New Zealand is not just a client to Vietnam but more of a partner. The Vietnam-New Zealand Premium Fruit Variety Development Project was a cooperation of both countries for New Zealand to sponsor and help in the development of the dragon fruit industry of Vietnam. Under the project, the Plant and Food Research of New Zealand and the Vietnamese Agricultural Research Institute invented ways to control a dragon fruit canker disease that hit Asia and at the same time developed immunity to it. The project also sold the license of the dragon fruit to a commercial farm. Moreover, it created a legal protection for a specific variety of the fruit called LD5, something which has never been done before.

This trade partnership between the two countries yielded an increase of 21% from 2012 to 2013 or a rise from US$761.7 million to US$926.8 million. There was a 52% increase in the export of dairy products from New Zealand to Vietnam while the wood industry experienced a 13% rise in exports. The technology sector in particular accumulated huge increases of 242% in 2013 and 125% this year. The agricultural sector is the strongest tie between the two countries. Beverage and food such as coconuts, mangoes, coffee and crustaceans are the frequent products imported from Vietnam to New Zealand. New Zealand is currently under talks of importing Vietnamese rambutan as well. With this strong trading relationship between the two countries, their economies are expected to develop rapidly and hopefully keep an amicable business partnership for many more years to come.