A farmer born in 1997 switched 1.3 ha of vegetables to sweet yellow passion fruit

Pham Ngoc Hai (Phạm Ngọc Hải) of the Chau Son hamlet in D'ran commune (xã D'ran), Lam Dong province, was born in 1997. In early May 2026, he regraded 1.3 ha of vegetable fields and switched to growing "chanh vàng ngọt" exclusively. At the first-harvest stage he picks 100-200 kg a day, and calculated at the peak market price of 50,000 dong/kg, daily sales come to 5-10 trieu dong, or roughly 30,500-61,000 yen. Reported by Báo Lâm Đồng at the end of September 2026, this case makes the relationship between equipment and unit price clear when read alongside production areas selling the same crop at 10,000-20,000 dong/kg.

What "chanh vàng ngọt" actually is wavers even within the article

Let us settle the name first. The article's headline and body consistently write "chanh vàng ngọt" (sweet yellow chanh). Chanh on its own is a word for lemon or lime. Yet a comment in the same article from Tran Kien (Trần Kiên), chairman of the D'ran commune farmers' association, reads "chanh dây vàng ngọt hữu cơ." Chanh dây refers to passion fruit.

The published photos settle the answer. Rows of vines wound around stakes, round green fruit that fits in the palm, identical fruit packed in boxes. It is passion fruit. The equipment described in the body, "nhà lưới, giàn leo, phủ bạt" (net house, climbing trellis, mulch), is the setup for a vine crop. The local paper has merely dropped the "dây" in its wording; it is reasonable to see the crop as passion fruit.

The cultivar name, however, appears nowhere in the article. Vietnamese nursery dealers sell yellow sweet-strain seedlings under names like "chanh dây vàng ngọt" and "chanh dây vàng siêu ngọt," with no unified product name. Apart from the local paper's wavering wording, this means the Japanese side cannot decide what it is buying on the name alone. Anyone making contact with this production area will have to start by obtaining the crop name and cultivar name in writing.

First harvest on 1.3 ha brings 5-10 trieu dong in daily sales; the full harvest is projected at 3 tonnes a week

Here are Hai's figures. After several years of trying to start a farming business, in early May 2026 he graded 1.3 ha of vegetable fields and switched to growing this crop exclusively. After tending it, he entered the first-harvest period and picked 100-200 kg a day. Multiplied by the 50,000 dong/kg of the peak market price, daily sales from 1.3 ha come to 5-10 trieu dong.

What the article cites as his own outlook is the following. Given the orchard's current growth, the full harvest period comes from May onward, with an average yield of about 3 tonnes a week, and profit is 2-3 times that of the same area of vegetables. With this profit, the initial investment in building the orchard can be recouped. Note that which year's May the original "tuổi cây đến tháng 5 trở đi" refers to cannot be determined from how the article is written.

It bears noting that 50,000 dong/kg is the price "at the moment the market peaked." It is not a year-round average. The figure of 5-10 trieu dong in daily sales is likewise a calculated value for the first-harvest period, worked back from that price.

Hai currently works with more than 10 local households across about 10 ha. The entire harvest is bought up through a linked chain led by Ho Duc (Hồ Đức) of the same Chau Son hamlet. This chain is run in line with market movements and covers everything from producing high-quality seedlings to new cultivation techniques, harvesting, storage, transport, and distribution. As of the end of September 2026, 50 households were registered in the chain, and the area had spread to about 50 ha inside and outside D'ran commune. All of it is land converted from lower-income crops.

65 trieu dong per 1,000 square meters; a leader who sent his children to study in Israel

The approach of Ho Duc, who leads the chain, explains this production area's unit price.

According to him, putting out products that meet the quality and food safety consumers demand requires a proper level of investment and a strict technical process. So before launching the model, he began by sending two of his children into agricultural technology and business management in Israel, and having them learn market connections at a specialized institution in Ho Chi Minh City.

Capital investment is about 65 trieu dong per 1,000 square meters. Converted to a hectare, that is 650 trieu dong, or roughly 3.96 million yen. With this sum he assembled a full set: a net house, a climbing trellis, mulch, a combination of water-saving irrigation and automatic fertigation, a nursery, and a warehouse for collection, primary processing, and packing. He started the model on 5 ha at the end of 2023 and has stabilized the planting density at 5,000 plants per hectare. He put more than 20 years of vegetable-growing experience into rebuilding production.

Looking at the single month of September 2026, Duc's 5 ha brings in around 1.5 tonnes a day, to which 2-3 tonnes from linked farmers are added. The entire volume is gathered at a warehouse in Don Duong commune (xã Đơn Dương), and after sorting and grading, 40% goes to export for Europe, the Middle East, ASEAN, and Australia, while the remaining 60% goes to domestic supermarkets, wholesale markets, and other distribution networks. The article writes that the income obtained is several tỷ dong per hectare a year. One tỷ is 1 billion dong, about 6.1 million yen.

The next investment is at the conceptual stage. In response to the expansion of the raw-material growing area, the article writes that the plan envisions building a large processing plant of about 3,000 square meters in total in D'ran commune within next year, making frozen products and bottled beverages to international quality standards. It does not say that construction has been decided.

With the same passion fruit, the equipment differs threefold and the unit price by 2.5 to 5 times

The value of this case emerges when it is set alongside another production area growing the same crop.

In Ea Rieng commune, Dak Lak province, a farmer who turned a barren hill into a passion fruit trellis has been reported. There the figures were an initial investment of 200-250 trieu dong per hectare and a selling price of 10,000-20,000 dong/kg.

The initial investment differs by 2.6 to 3.25 times and the unit price by 2.5 to 5 times. The gap in equipment and the gap in unit price line up at close ratios. This, however, is merely a calculation made by placing two reports side by side; it is not evidence that the equipment pushed up the unit price. The net house, automatic fertigation, and own nursery are all equipment needed to ship to Europe or Australia, but their effect alone cannot be isolated and measured from the two articles.

The conditions of comparison, however, are not aligned. The 50,000 dong is a peak-time value, while the 10,000-20,000 dong is a figure reported as a "range of variation by season and quality." Since they are not lined up on the same measure, please treat the multiples as a rough guide only.

The sixfold gap in planting density is also a concern. At 833 plants/ha versus 5,000 plants/ha, the training method itself differs. It is hard to think that the trellis shape, the number of training tiers, and the frequency of pruning are the same. Whether this difference is a yield difference or a difference in how it was reported cannot be judged from either article. This is the item that should actually be checked when comparing production areas.

What the Japanese side should check first is the cultivar name, the density, and the plant's operation timing

On Vietnam's passion fruit industry, the overseas fruit-tree agriculture information collected in 2025 by the Central Fruit Association (a public interest incorporated foundation) lists three challenges: fragmentation of production areas, low seedling quality, and overuse of pesticides. The point is that although it has become a product generating about US$300 million a year from processed goods alone, seedling quality is holding it back.

Duc's inclusion of his own nursery in the full set of capital investment answers this point head-on. The chain's description following the order of "beginning with the production of high-quality seedlings" is probably for the same reason. Buying seedlings from outside leaves the risk that something different arrives the next year.

On the other hand, the absence of a cultivar name in the article and the wavering of the crop name between the body and the quotation show that this risk has not completely disappeared. If a Japanese importer or a beverage or confectionery manufacturer looks at this production area, the order of checks would be as follows.

Raise seedlings in-house, test with a few, spread to neighbors, and build a plant last

D'ran commune's approach has something in common with the progression seen in other Vietnamese production areas. First create a body that raises seedlings in-house, test with a few farmers, spread to neighbors once the numbers come in, and consider a processing plant last. A case in Lao Cai distributing 2,300 Thai-type custard apple seedlings to 4 households and trialing them on 2 ha also started through the same form. Two cases cannot support a generalization, but the difference is clear. D'ran commune has already spread to 50 households and 50 ha and has reached the stage of envisioning a processing plant.

Lam Dong province is also a land that has switched crops by using the cool climate of its highlands. About 400 kg of white-flesh dragon fruit was delivered to Vietnam Airlines' in-flight service for the first time and that too came from the same province. The move to find outlets that fetch a high price as fresh fruit and the move to process and sell year-round are advancing in parallel.

Chairman Tran Kien notes that D'ran commune's climate and soil are very well suited to growing nutrient-rich fruit trees, and that the model of cooperatively growing organic sweet yellow passion fruit has opened a new direction toward changing the cropping mix and growing wealthier, creating employment for farmer members. He further said that residents putting modern machinery into processing and connecting it to a form that exports products directly to markets in various countries shows the prospect of this new crop developing into a high-value-added industrial product.

Summary

A farmer born in 1997 replanted 1.3 ha of vegetable fields and, at the first harvest, produced daily sales of 5-10 trieu dong (about 30,500-61,000 yen). Behind it is a chain that has put in about 3.96 million yen of equipment per hectare, holds its own nursery, and moves 40% to export and 60% domestically. Compared with a production area selling the same passion fruit at 10,000-20,000 dong/kg, there is a gap of 2.6-3.25 times in equipment cost and 2.5-5 times in unit price. Whether the cultivar is the same, however, has not been confirmed, and the way prices are taken is not aligned, so what created this difference cannot be identified from the two articles.

There is one thing the side handling Vietnamese passion fruit can do right away. When you receive a proposal from the field under the name "chanh vàng ngọt" or "sweet yellow passion fruit," have them provide the cultivar name and planting density in writing. The crop name's wording wavers even within the local paper's article. Judge on the name alone, and what arrives differs from what you assumed.

The yen conversions in the text are calculated at 1 yen = 164 dong (the prevailing rate as of October 6, 2026).

Sources

• Báo Lâm Đồng - Chanh vàng ngọt mở hướng làm giàu ở D'ran
• Báo Đắk Lắk - Mở hướng làm giàu từ cây chanh dây
• Central Fruit Association - Overseas Fruit-Tree Agriculture Information Collection and Provision Project 2025, No.159-160, "Vietnam: Banana and Passion Fruit Export Value Reaches US$1 Billion"