It is recommended not to massively increase the area

Ia Nhin commune (Chu Pah district) is one of those places with a climate and soil very suitable for growing passion fruit, so the yield is high and the quality is good. Therefore, the area of ​​passion fruit cultivation in this place has greatly increased in recent years.

Mr. Hoang Van Hoa (Ia Sik Village, Ia Nhin Municipality) said the family’s coffee garden was established in 1998, so it is old, poorly productive and will have to be torn down to replant it. However, before coffee was replanted, it took more than 1 year to improve the soil by planting short-term trees. After that, with the growing passion fruit movement, the price was also high, so the family decided to invest in cultivation.

Last year, the family planted 2 sticks of passion fruit and harvested more than 4 tons/stick, the price at that time was nearly VND 20,000/kg, the family earned about VND 150 million. This year, the family continues to tear down 3 old coffee poles to plant passion fruit. However, due to pests and diseases this year passion fruit leading to decrease in yield, the yield of 3 Sao is only about VND 60-70 million.

Mr. Pham Ba Nam, chairman of the People’s Committee of Ia Nhin Township, also admitted that people in the area are growing passion fruit at an alarming rate. Mr. Nam said that at monthly briefings, he also urged village chiefs to orientate and urge people to be careful when it comes to massively increasing the passion fruit acreage. The Japanese in particular fear that the problem of supply and demand will be breached.

“Passion fruit brings high profits, just making 5 sao brings higher profits than growing 2 ha of coffee, so people plant it massively. Knowing this, households mainly destroy old coffee to plant passion fruit with the intention of recultivating coffee again 1-2 years later. However, passion fruit is not truly sustainable, so we advise people not to extend the net acreage, just cross it with other plants,” Mr. Nam said.

It is known that once in 2016 – 2017 in Gia Lai passion fruit cultivation movement broke out, then the price of passion fruit on the market fluctuated many times, sometimes even falling dramatically, as a result of which farmers suffered heavy losses. And during this period when the price of passion fruit is stable, people are massively planting new plants without considering whether the product production is sustainable in the long term or not.

Not to mention the massive development of passion fruit trees, if not accompanied by solutions to manage seedling quality and prevent pests and diseases in a fundamental and methodical way, breaking out pests is very easy as this is a very vulnerable plant for dangerous diseases and threatened with “eradication”.

Mr. Le Van Thanh, director of Ia Mo Nong Agricultural Production, Trade, Services and Tourism Cooperative (Chu Pah District), said the trend of abandoning passion fruit coffee cultivation in Ia Mo Nong Township and other districts is alarming be fast . Not only old coffee gardens, but also coffee gardens that are only a few years old were mercilessly destroyed.

“Just think, 1kg of passion fruit equals 2kg of coffee, so why don’t people rush to cut coffee to plant passion fruit. It is worth noting that this issue has flared up, but local authorities have not seen timely intervention,” Mr Thanh said.

Mr. Thanh also said that passion fruit cultivation is also good, but needs to participate in the chain of links and sign off-take agreements with companies to secure the market for the product. At present, the area has increased too much, resulting in too large production, while the capacity of consuming factories can’t cover the whole purchasing power for people. At that time, the price of passion fruit will be low and people will lose money, which is inevitable.

Mr. Vo Minh Quang, head of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Mang Yang District, said that when developing passion fruit growing areas, local people are advised not to massively expand the area in order to make immediate profit. Because at present, the production of people is not yet closely linked to processing plants.

Most of the area planted with passion fruit is still on the household scale, mixed with other plants, or used the area for replanting coffee trees to plant, so large-scale production areas towards sustainability have not yet been established.

Link production to reduce risk

Gia Lai currently has about 4,500 hectares of passion fruit with an average yield of about 40 tons/ha. Notably, as of July 2022, Vietnamese passion fruit has been officially exported to the Chinese market, opening up great opportunities for the province’s passion fruit production.

However, passion fruit cultivation in Gia Lai province faces many sacred challenges when the area increases massively and the quality of the seedlings is not strictly controlled. In addition, passion fruit disease management has not improved, with many households producing using the unsustainable cultivation method.

Mr. Nguyen Cong Son, head of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Chu Pah District, said the task of the district’s agricultural sector is to plan the region and develop the region to form cooperative organizations among farmers. At the same time, organize training for farmers to understand the cultivation process according to the importing country’s requirements and standards, and look for capable companies to establish contacts with people who export passion fruit. In addition, the district is also examining large areas of passion fruit cultivation and concentrated planting to consider and assist people in assigning planting area codes.

Mr. Doan Ngoc Co, deputy director of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Gia Lai Province, said the province is trying to finalize the goal of developing the passion fruit area to about 25,000 hectares by 2025. Compared to many other cultivated plants, the passion fruit is much more economical. For example, 1 hectare of coffee with good care gives about 4 tons of kernels, the current price is 47 – 48 thousand VND/kg, after deducting the profit cost of 100 – 120 million VND. Meanwhile, 1 hectare of passion fruit yields about 40 tons, the current price is 15,000 VND/kg, minus the investment cost of about 200 million VND, the grower makes a profit of 350-400 million VND.

From the profits that passion fruit trees bring, Gia Lai Province has found many synchronous solutions, such as prioritizing land funds, building organic farming practices, saving irrigation for scientific harvest, safe storage… so that this plant grows sustainably.

On the other hand, there are currently 3 companies in Gia Lai Province that have established a leading passion fruit products processing factory, including DOVECO Gia Lai Fruit and Vegetable Import and Export One Member Company Limited, Quicornac Company Limited and Joint Stock Company Nafoods Group. Currently, these three companies produce over 200,000 tons of products per year and plan to increase their capacity in the coming years.

Initially, a number of connection models between farmers, cooperatives, production groups and companies have proven to build a value chain for passion fruit products. In addition, there are companies in the province that produce high-tech passion fruit seeds.

Besides the Chinese market, passion fruit is also exported to EU member states, Latin America, Malaysia, Korea… so there is no need to worry about depending on the market. Also in the future, many companies will come to Gia Lai to invest in building a factory to process passion fruit products.

“If the area of ​​25,000 hectares of passion fruit can be realized by 2025, Gia Lai can hold a festival for this plant, which no other province has done, just like Dak Lak has done a very good festival with coffee trees and durian,” expected Mr .co

According to statistics from the Ministry of Industry and Commerce of Gia Lai Province, the province’s fresh fruit and fruit juice export turnover is estimated at US$120 million in 2022, the highest ever. Various export products such as passion fruit, frozen passion fruit juice, passion fruit juice, frozen fruit (banana, mango, pineapple, dragon fruit, corn…). Export markets are expanding, particularly EU member countries, Korea and China.