Quintessence of Vietnamese agricultural products: Binh Phuoc red-fleshed jackfruit

The sower of seeds

In Bu Dop district, Binh Phuoc province, the Global GAP red-fleshed jackfruit model belonging to Mr. Nguyen Viet Vi - Director of Phuoc Thien Cooperative is considered a model for people to visit and learn.

We had the opportunity to visit a jackfruit farm with an area of over ten hectares, which is fundamentally invested and planned with an organic composting and automatic irrigation system, motor vehicles to a beautiful gathering and preliminary processing area. Mr. Vi shared, having spent most of his childhood in the land of Bu Dop, he knows the local climate and soil potential very well. After failing with pepper, he boldly converted to fruit trees like many local farmers, but due to a lack of knowledge in science and technology, small and fragmented farming, low economic efficiency, many farmers are caught up in the vortex of "planting, cutting down".

During a business trip with a friend in 2015, he had the opportunity to sample red-fleshed jackfruit. What he liked most about this jackfruit was the thick pulp, sweet taste mixed with vanilla flavor, eye-catching carrot red color, these characteristics encouraged him to learn more about the fruit at first sight. He found through research that this jackfruit variety is easy to grow, has good disease resistance, high yield, grows in weather, climate and soil conditions quite similar to Vietnam and particularly Binh Phuoc, so he decided to buy nearly 100 seedlings for trial planting.

The tree has adapted quite well and gave its first fruit after 2 years of planting, retaining the quality of the leading variety while also giving bigger and higher quality fruit. Without hesitation, Mr. Vi and his colleagues in the cooperative immediately started researching, breeding PT79 branded varieties and initiated mass planting.

According to Mr. Vi, despite the Covid-19 pandemic during 2020 and 2021, thanks to its special qualities, red-fleshed jackfruit immediately attracted attention and was well received after launching into the market. There was a time when the price of fresh jackfruit reached nearly 100,000/kg, each jackfruit costs millions of dong but it is still favored by consumers. Most customers after enjoying these jackfruits, praised them and returned for more. In addition, many business owners and large supermarkets come to sign contracts to purchase products.

“This jackfruit variety has a short growth period, produces fruit all year round, adapts to all types of soil, and especially, if cultivated organically, it will reduce input costs because the tree is not selective with its fertilizers and also carries less pests. The cost of each jackfruit tree is only 50,000 VND a year. Mature trees can yield 15 - 30 fruits, each fruit weighs about 10kg. With proper care, the fruit can weigh up to 14-15kg. Given that one hectare of land is planted with nearly 270 trees, if the price of jackfruit remains stable from 40,000 to 60,000 VND/kg, then each hectare can bring in billions of VND in profit after deducting costs", Mr. Vi shared.

Deep processing and market expansion

Deep processing and product diversification is a necessary direction to develop cooperatives and jackfruit products sustainably, . Enlisting the support of local branches and sectors, taking advantage of the cooperative's resources, Mr. Vi built a factory to process jackfruit products including: vacuum-sealed fresh jackfruit and freeze-dried jackfruit with approximately 100 tons of segment/month.

Preliminary and deep processing of products help the cooperative solve the issue of preserving agricultural products, as well as increase income for its members. In addition, with the initiative from production to the dining table, consumers have access to good products at affordable prices. Although the factory is gradually finalizing its operation, the initial success of the cooperative is the successful negotiation with a purchasing company in the Netherlands to import 2 tons of vacuum-sealed fresh jackfruit per week. The cooperative's freeze-dried jackfruit products have been present in various retail agent chains inside and outside the locality.

“In order to continue to market expansion, the cooperative actively applies traceability technology as well as searches for markets through e-commerce channels, electronic trading floors, etc. While only accounting for 5% of the total provincial area of ​​jackfruit, red flesh jackfruit products branded PT79 by the cooperative are gradually building their own foothold in the market thanks to the cooperative's flexible strategy", Mr. Vi shared.

After gaining a foothold in the market, Mr. Vi enriched himself and the 22 cooperative members, he also actively shared varieties, production experience, and consumed all products for farmers, cooperatives inside and outside the province. Dac O Cooperative is a noteworthy supplier (Bu Gia Map district) with over 100 members participating in the cultivation of jackfruit under the support of Phuoc Thien Cooperative.

As a guide for members of Dak O Organic Agricultural Cooperative to study and shake hands with Phuoc Thien Cooperative, Mr. Tran Van Khanh, Director of Dak O Organic Agricultural Cooperative, said, he found the red-fleshed jackfruit trees to be very promising after in-depth study. Members of the linkage chain have access to and support in standard varieties, farming techniques as well as product consumption.

“With Phuoc Thien Cooperative commitment to accompany farmers from the stage of technology transfer to product consumption, farmers in Binh Phuoc province and in Dak O particularly will have  opportunities for stable and sustainable economic development", said Mr. Khanh excitedly.

According to Mr. Vi, in addition to ensuring transparency on product quality and safety, building a large enough raw material area while providing regular and continuous supply is a prerequisite for most successful businesses.

“The goal of the cooperative is farmers' linkage, concentrated production following organic processes to meet domestic and international standards and produce clean products, ensuring food safety and hygiene with lower investment costs and higher income. Additionally, the cooperative hopes to increas competitiveness and stabilize output. The cooperative currently has cooperated with 150 farmer households to plant over 1,000 hectares of jackfruit trees. The cooperative has set a goal to expand its specialized cultivation area to 3,000 hectares by 2025 for agricultural products, meeting the needs of factories and aim for export", Vi affirmed.

Regarding jackfruit in Phuoc Thien Cooperative, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Binh, Director of Binh Phuoc Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said that PT79 red-fleshed jackfruit of Phuoc Thien Cooperative is one of the products that meet the provincial 4 -star OCOP standards. The PT79 red-fleshed jackfruit by Phuoc Thien Cooperative is guaranteed in terms of standards, has a planting area code, traceability, procedures for results checking, testing for food safety,  and environmental, production criteria following VietGAP standards to reach the international market.

"The province is currently implementing the "comprehensive digital transformation pilot cooperative model", Phuoc Thien Cooperative is one of two cooperatives that have implemented this model. Accordingly, participants will be supported to build commercial information websites, be provided with equipment, software, utility services and solutions to increase brand recognition; cooperatives will be supported to apply production management by information technology devices; production and warehouse monitoring cameras; build an automatic IoT system in farm care; labels, QR codes to trace product origin...

These activities will thereby help Phuoc Thien Cooperative's red-fleshed jackfruit increase its advantage in advertising, brand promotion, and market expansion. As a result, members will enjoy high economic value and most importantly, the province will have authentic key agricultural products”, emphasized Director Nguyen Thanh Binh.