Building a linkage chain of Golden VN77 passion fruit production

On September 17, Van Hoa Investment Joint Stock Company organized a workshop on building value chains, developing growing areas, linking, and consuming Golden VN77 passion fruit products in Dak Lak.

According to Mr. Vo Nhat Hung, Deputy General Director of Van Hoa Investment Joint Stock Company (Van Hoa Company), the Golden VN77 passion fruit variety is a new variety, which has been announced for circulation according to regulations by the company. With this new variety, if farmers follow the correct farming process, the productivity will be stable and profits will be high.

According to Mr. Hung, to evaluate the effectiveness, the company has experimentally planted the Golden VN77 passion fruit variety in many localities with different climates and soils, such as Dak Lak, Dak Nong, Tien Giang, Binh Thuan, and Tay Ninh. After trail planting of about 80 ha in recent times, Van Hoa Company is planning to expand the passion fruit growing area with a scale of 5,000–10,000 ha to export to the Chinese, Asian, and European markets and serve deep processing.

Unlike the traditional purple passion fruit variety, the yellow guava-flavored passion fruit variety Golden VN77 has the ability to adapt and resist pests and diseases quite well, especially in areas with high humidity, and can be grown in all regions, such as Central Highlands, Mekong Delta, etc.

"In addition to harvesting fresh fruit for domestic consumption and export, this yellow passion fruit variety can also be deeply processed into many products with high economic value, such as jam, syrup, juice, etc. Currently, Van Hoa Company is building a production and consumption linkage chain with farmers and cooperatives," said Mr. Hung.

Accordingly, Van Hoa Company will provide seedlings, full technical support, care processes, nutritional advice for plants, and pesticides used in the process so that the product meets export requirements. The company also supports farmers in lending 30% of the cost of seedlings and some specific fertilizer lines provided by the company as a deposit for the company to purchase farmers' products.

"The company will purchase all products for farmers as well as production affiliates at a minimum price of VND 20,000/kg for type A and type B goods. Passion fruit is assessed to have great potential and quick payback, be easy to grow, and have quite good adaptability.

With an average investment cost from planting to harvesting of about VND 300 million/ha, after 6 months of planting, the fruit yield reaches 13–15 tons, and after 12 months, the second harvest reaches 14–15 tons. With an average first-year yield of 27–30 tons/ha and an average selling price of VND 20,000/kg, farmers earn VND 540–600 million/ha, gaining a profit of VND 240–300 million/ha," said Mr. Hung.

At the workshop, many farmers and cooperatives asked questions about Van Hoa Company's linkage and supply of standard seeds. Many opinions assumed that the yellow passion fruit variety is currently quite new, so people are buying seeds floating on the market for trial planting. Thus, passion fruit has been infected with many pests and diseases. For that, the cooperatives requested Van Hoa Company to provide standard seeds.

Answering the above questions, Mr. Vo Nhat Hung said that the company currently has a nursery, producing more than 1.2 million seedlings/year. "Therefore, the business commits to providing standard, pest-free seeds. The business is also committed to providing technical support and output consumption to form a sustainable linkage chain between people and businesses," he pledged.

Speaking at the workshop, Mr. Lam Nhat Dan, General Director of Van Hoa Investment Joint Stock Company, said that the workshop aims to introduce an overview of the Golden VN77 passion fruit variety. Besides, this is an opportunity to provide guidance on breeding methods as well as stages from planting to harvesting, helping to commercialize Golden VN77 passion fruit products. This brings optimal productivity, revenue, and profit to farmers in general and farmers in Dak Lak province in particular.

According to Mr. Dan, this workshop is based on the foundation of building trust, developing value, and elevating Golden VN77 passion fruit researched and developed by Van Hoa Company. "Through today's workshop, we are looking forward to listening to support and answer questions about crop production as well as support policies for people about fertilizers and products to support pest prevention and control, and plans and methods of consuming post-harvest products.

The opinions of delegates and experts participating in the workshop are extremely important, both helping us overcome difficulties and providing lessons to contribute to the development of the company in particular and the entire Vietnamese agricultural sector in general," shared Mr. Dan.

At the workshop, Mr. Nguyen Hoai Duong, Director of the Dak Lak Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, highly appreciated Van Hoa Company for organizing a workshop on building value chains, developing growing areas, linking, and consuming Golden VN77 passion fruit products.

Mr. Duong requested that Van Hoa Company continue to coordinate with the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Department of Agriculture/Economics, and local governments to promote sustainable development of the passion fruit industry; set product quality inspection standards to ensure export standards and food safety and hygiene.

At the same time, Van Hoa Company needs to build a support, education, and training system for producers on effective agricultural production and management techniques; build technological application linkage models; and ensure product consumption for people.

"Van Hoa offers a passion fruit variety that has many advantages to develop the product chain. This is very important, aiming for ultimate efficiency. Particularly, Van Hoa Company needs to be transparent about its linkage. The company also needs to research the market needs to target deep processing. This helps make the output of passion fruit more stable," suggested Mr. Nguyen Hoai Duong, Director of the Dak Lak Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.