HANOI, Vietnam >> At Pham Thanh Hong’s dragon fruit orchard in Vietnam, most of the lights are turned off. All is silent except for the periodic thud of the ripe pink fruit falling to the ground.

Pham, 46, is not bothering to harvest them.

The farmer watched dragon fruit prices plummet by 25% in the last week of December to nearly zero, pushed down by what several officials in Vietnam say is China’s “zero-COVID” policy.

China has gone to great lengths to keep the virus out of its borders. It has screened mail and tested thousands of packages of fruit and frozen foods despite little evidence that the virus can be transmitted through such products. It has locked down entire cities, leaving Chinese citizens stranded without medicine or food.

That strict virus policy has also had alarming consequences well beyond China. Southeast Asian fruit farmers are especially vulnerable because so much of the region’s exports are directed toward the country. In 2020, the total fruit exports from Southeast Asia to China stood at roughly $6 billion.

Long lines of trucks arriving from Vietnam, Myanmar and Laos are now backed up on China’s border crossings.

The restrictions appear to have especially hurt Vietnam’s dragon fruit farmers. After nine cities in China said they had detected the coronavirus on dragon fruit imported from Vietnam, authorities shut down supermarkets selling the fruit, forced at least 1,000 people who had come into contact with the fruit to quarantine and ordered customers to be tested.

Then, in late December, China closed its border with Vietnam for the first time during the pandemic.

“China did not tell Vietnam anything in advance,” said Dang Phuc Nguyen, general secretary of the Vietnam Fruit and Vegetable Association.

More than 1 million Vietnamese dragon fruit, mango and jackfruit farmers have been affected by the curbs, according to Dang. China accounts for more than 55% of Vietnam’s $3.2 billion in fruit and vegetable exports.

The ripple effects of China’s zero-COVID-19 policy have accelerated discussions about Southeast Asia’s dependence on the world’s second-largest economy. They have also coincided with growing anxiety in the region over Beijing’s presence in the South China Sea.

Chinese authorities reopened the border with Vietnam last month, but they have not relaxed their screening measures. Vietnamese officials have told businesses to avoid the crossing for now.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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