{"id":1605,"date":"2026-10-06T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vietnam-agri.com\/?post_type=industry_news&p=1605"},"modified":"2026-10-06T12:52:43","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T03:52:43","slug":"ea-rieng-passion","status":"publish","type":"industry_news","link":"https:\/\/vietnam-agri.com\/en\/industry_news\/ea-rieng-passion\/","title":{"rendered":"A 3 ha cassava hillside becomes a passion fruit trellis, and payback is decided by unit price"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the 7th hamlet of Ea Rieng commune (x\u00e3 Ea Ri\u00eang), Dak Lak province, Nguyen Van Cong (Nguy\u1ec5n V\u0103n C\u00f4ng) built a passion fruit trellis on a 3 ha hill. It is a sandy, barren slope that previously grew cassava and acacia. He planted about 2,500 plants and put in concrete stakes, a trellis, and irrigation piping. Picking begins after 7-8 months, and at peak there are days when he harvests about 2 t\u1ea1 (200 kg) a day. Read as a feel-good tale of crop conversion, this case reported by B\u00e1o \u0110\u1eafk L\u1eafk in October 2026 misses the point. Dividing the reported investment and selling price shows that how many tonnes must be sold in this conversion to break even differs twofold depending on the unit price.<\/p>\n

200-250 trieu dong per hectare, selling at 10,000-20,000 dong\/kg<\/h2>\n

Let us organize the amounts given in the article. By the estimate of the Bao An Agriculture and Service Cooperative (HTX N\u00f4ng nghi\u1ec7p v\u00e0 D\u1ecbch v\u1ee5 B\u1ea3o An), the initial investment for one hectare of passion fruit is about 200-250 trieu dong. The breakdown is mainly seedlings, stakes, trellis wire, and the irrigation system. Since trieu is one million, 200-250 trieu dong is 200 million to 250 million dong, roughly 1.22-1.52 million yen.<\/p>\n

The selling price is 10,000-20,000 dong\/kg, moving with season and quality. Converted to yen, that is about 61-122 yen\/kg.<\/p>\n

Dividing these two brings out the outline of the conversion. To recover the initial investment from gross revenue alone, one hectare needs to produce the following volume.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Initial investment \/ selling price<\/th>\n10,000 dong\/kg (about 61 yen)<\/th>\n20,000 dong\/kg (about 122 yen)<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
200 trieu dong (about 1.22 million yen)<\/td>\n20.0 tonnes<\/td>\n10.0 tonnes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
250 trieu dong (about 1.52 million yen)<\/td>\n25.0 tonnes<\/td>\n12.5 tonnes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

The figures in the table are the cumulative sales volume needed to earn gross revenue equal to the initial investment. They include neither fertilizer, nor pesticides, nor labor, nor electricity. In reality, annual variable costs ride on top of this, so profit remains in hand only after this volume is exceeded.<\/p>\n

The key point is that whether the unit price is 10,000 dong or 20,000 dong, the volume that must be sold before recouping the investment differs twofold. The article also writes that for this crop, cultivar selection, trellis building, and canopy shaping greatly influence yield. As long as neither the annual yield, nor the variable costs, nor the orchard's service life is given, which contributes more cannot be compared. What can be said for certain is the arithmetic that if the unit price halves, the required cumulative volume doubles.<\/p>\n

Cong's peak harvest is reported as about 200 kg a day from 3 ha. This is a single day's figure at the height of the season, not the kind of figure that can be stretched out to calculate an annual total. The article gives no annual yield either.<\/p>\n

The first thing that disappeared on joining the cooperative was the anxiety over technique<\/h2>\n

The turning point that led Cong to commit to conversion was joining the Bao An cooperative. After receiving technical guidance and having sales-channel connections arranged, he switched his low-efficiency farmland to passion fruit. What the article carries as his own words is the following. At first the investment was quite large, and since it was a new crop the family worried. The cooperative guided him from cultivar selection to trellis building and tending, and in about 7-8 months the orchard entered harvest. There are times when he picks about 2 t\u1ea1 a day, far more efficient than the cassava or acacia before.<\/p>\n

What he cites from his experience is that passion fruit is not extremely picky about soil, but needs land that is loose, well-draining, and has a secured water source. Cultivar selection, trellis building, and canopy shaping greatly influence yield. When a vine reaches the trellis surface, pinch the tip and choose 3-5 healthy branches to arrange evenly. At the same time, constantly cut off weak and diseased branches. Especially in the rainy season, you must patrol the orchard continuously and find and treat fungal diseases early.<\/p>\n

Nguyen Khac Tien (Nguy\u1ec5n Kh\u1eafc Ti\u1ebfn) of the 4th hamlet is also one of the early movers who converted low-efficiency hill land to passion fruit. He has put in a trellis and water-saving irrigation and manages along a safe process. According to him, the biggest benefit of joining the cooperative is that farmers no longer have to handle everything themselves, from technique to sales channels. The cooperative links with a buying company, and vehicles come to the orchard to carry the products away. In return, each household bears the obligation to keep the production process and to use fertilizer and pesticides as instructed to secure fruit quality.<\/p>\n

There is a cooperative head who examined the land and climate in 2020 and chose this crop<\/h2>\n

The one who rooted passion fruit in Ea Rieng commune and spread it little by little is Tran Ba Dan (Tr\u1ea7n B\u00e1 D\u00e2n), head of the Bao An Agriculture and Service Cooperative. In 2020, out of a wish to change the small-scale, scattered way of producing, he surveyed land and climate conditions together with members and chose passion fruit as the conversion crop. The cooperative now manages about 14 ha of passion fruit. Across the commune as a whole, more than 20 households grow it on over 30 ha.<\/p>\n

After harvest, the fruit is carried through the cooperative's linkage to a plant in Gia Lai province, processed, and sent on for export to several overseas markets. This production area is organized not as a seller of fresh fruit but as a raw-material supply base for a processing plant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Item<\/th>\nDetails<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Location<\/td>\nEa Rieng commune (x\u00e3 Ea Ri\u00eang), Dak Lak province<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Crops before conversion<\/td>\nCassava, maize, acacia<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Soil conditions<\/td>\nSandy, barren hill land<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
cooperatives<\/td>\nHTX N\u00f4ng nghi\u1ec7p v\u00e0 D\u1ecbch v\u1ee5 B\u1ea3o An (head: Tr\u1ea7n B\u00e1 D\u00e2n; the original title is Gi\u00e1m \u0111\u1ed1c)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Area managed by the cooperative<\/td>\nAbout 14 ha<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
The whole commune<\/td>\nOver 20 households, over 30 ha<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
When this crop was chosen<\/td>\nDecided in 2020 after surveying land and climate with members<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Initial investment per hectare<\/td>\nAbout 200-250 trieu dong (about 1.22-1.52 million yen)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Selling price<\/td>\n10,000-20,000 dong\/kg (about 61-122 yen)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
From planting to harvest<\/td>\nAbout 7-8 months<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Outlet<\/td>\nProcessed at a plant in Gia Lai province, exported to overseas markets<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

To Minh Mai (T\u00f4 Minh M\u1ea1i), vice chairman of the Ea Rieng commune people's committee, states that the local long-term direction is to form concentrated production areas step by step, raise product quality, and build a linked chain to secure a stable outlet.<\/p>\n

This village is tackling head-on the three challenges of production-area fragmentation, seedling quality, and pesticide use<\/h2>\n

This 30 ha story meshes head-on with the challenges Vietnam's passion fruit industry has carried.<\/p>\n

According to the overseas fruit-tree agriculture information collected in 2025 by the Central Fruit Association (a public interest incorporated foundation), Vietnam's passion fruit was previously barely included in agricultural exports but has now emerged as a major product, with processed goods generating about US$300 million a year. Negotiations to enter markets such as the United States, South Korea, and Thailand are also under way. On the other hand, the three challenges raised are production-area fragmentation, low seedling quality, and overuse of pesticides. As proposals for overcoming them, it presents a review of regional zoning, stricter pesticide management, and better organization of small-scale producers.<\/p>\n

Let us apply what Ea Rieng commune is doing to these three. Gathering over 30 ha across more than 20 households to aim for a concentrated production area is the response to production-area fragmentation. The cooperative guiding from cultivar selection onward is the response to seedling quality. Having each household use fertilizer and pesticides as instructed is the response to pesticide management. The cooperative itself amounts to the organization of small-scale producers. Something in the same form as the prescriptions being proposed is moving simultaneously in a single village.<\/p>\n

However, whether superior seedlings are actually being used, how well each household keeps to the process, and what results the residual-pesticide tests show are not reported. The form being in place and results being achieved are separate matters.<\/p>\n

When a Japanese beverage, dairy, or confectionery maker uses passion fruit juice or puree, the trading counterpart is not the farmer but the processing plant. But it is the orchard that decides the residual-pesticide test result. However well-equipped the plant, if pesticide use is not aligned at the raw-material orchards, results tend to swing from lot to lot. A production area where the cooperative imposes an \"obligation to use as instructed\" and one where each household sprays at its own discretion differ in how the process is aligned. This is where it is worth asking a processing plant which organization it buys its raw material from.<\/p>\n

Crop conversion on barren hills is not happening only in Dak Lak<\/h2>\n

In the hill lands of the central region, moves to switch from low-income crops to other products are appearing here and there. A case in Quang Ngai of stopping acacia and switching to lemongrass, producing 80 million dong of profit on 1 ha of mountain<\/a> has been reported. Acacia takes several years from planting to felling, with no income in between. The motive to replace it with a crop that turns over in the short term is shared.<\/p>\n

The outlet after conversion is also taking a similar form. Just as passion fruit flows to a processing plant in Gia Lai province, a dragon fruit processing plant named India as a candidate export destination after the shipping time to the Middle East lengthened from three weeks to four<\/a> there is such a move too. Production areas are tied to processing plants, and the plants look for export destinations. In this structure, the export market price affects the farmer's take-home. But the plant's yield rate, quality grades, the form of the contract, and domestic supply and demand should all matter too, and how the Bao An cooperative's buying price is set is not reported. What moves the 10,000-to-20,000-dong range can only be verified by asking.<\/p>\n

Ingenuity on the side that bundles farmers together is also advancing. The Bau May cooperative, which splits pepper into six forms to sell<\/a> likewise, cooperatives that split the same raw material into multiple grades to go after unit price have emerged. Whether the Bao An cooperative will take the same road is not known from any published plan.<\/p>\n

If you inquire, look at both the plant and the orchard<\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
What to confirm<\/th>\nWhom to ask<\/th>\nWhy ask it<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
From which organization the raw material is bought<\/td>\nProcessing plant<\/td>\nWhether via a cooperative or individual farmers changes how process control is aligned<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Whether pesticide-use records remain per household<\/td>\nProcessing plant or cooperative<\/td>\nDirectly tied to the reproducibility of residual-pesticide results<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Contract-farming area and number of households<\/td>\ncooperatives<\/td>\nMeasures whether the required volume can be secured continuously<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
How the buying price is set<\/td>\ncooperatives<\/td>\nWhether fixed or market-linked changes the read on next year's planting<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
The unit price's ups and downs over the past three years<\/td>\nCooperative or processing plant<\/td>\nLearn how the 10,000-20,000 dong range has moved<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Summary<\/h2>\n

Put 200-250 trieu dong (about 1.22-1.52 million yen) into one hectare to build a trellis and sell at 10,000-20,000 dong\/kg. To earn gross revenue equal to the investment, you need to sell 20-25 tonnes from one hectare at a unit price of 10,000 dong, or 10-12.5 tonnes at 20,000 dong. Merely halving the unit price doubles the cumulative sales volume needed to recoup it.<\/p>\n

What we would recommend to the Japanese side that handles, or is considering, Vietnamese passion fruit juice or puree is to ask the processing plant it deals with whether it buys its raw material from a cooperative or from individual farmers. Against the three challenges of production-area fragmentation, seedling quality, and overuse of pesticides, organization is raised as one of the prescriptions. Ea Rieng commune's 30 ha is a production area on the side where that answer is \"from a cooperative.\"<\/p>\n

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

Sources<\/h2>\n