Once a promising agricultural model that provided livelihoods for many people in Son La, in recent years, the area planted with passion fruit has been shrinking. It is estimated that in the province, there are only about 600 hectares of land for passion fruit cultivation. This is down from over 3,000 hectares in 2018.
Mr. Tráng Vạ Đế, a farmer who currently grows 750 passion fruit plants in Phiêng Cài village (Lóng Sập commune, Mộc Châu district), shared that passion fruit used to be the main source of income for his family in previous years. However, the cultivation model of this crop is becoming increasingly less effective. “A few years ago, we only planted second and third-season passion fruit. At that time, with 260 plants, we still earned about 60 million VND per year. This year, my wife and I invested in first-season plants. However, as of now, near the end of the year, the 750 plants have only brought in about 30 million VND in income.”
Similarly, at another household growing passion fruit in Chiềng Sơn commune (Mộc Châu district), the situation is not much better. The farmer shared that during the “golden years” of 2018, his family grew over 500 passion fruit plants. At that time, red passion fruit was highly valued. One kilogram of red passion fruit could be sold for about 30,000 VND, or even up to 40,000 VND. However, the price of passion fruit has declined over the years, forcing him to reduce the scale to just over 200 plants. This year, the price of passion fruit has continued to plummet. Each kilogram now fetches only 4,000-6,000 VND, so his family has “abandoned” the garden and switched back to planting corn and cassava.
The passion fruit cultivation model was first piloted in Son La in 2015. After the pilot period, recognizing its potential, Son La province allowed Nafoods Tây Bắc Joint Stock Company to implement a project to expand the passion fruit growing area. The target was to reach 5,000 hectares of land for this fruit. Nafoods is also one of six companies that received an investment certificate from Son La to build an agricultural product processing plant in the province. Since 2019, the company’s passion fruit, vegetable, and fruit processing plant, with a total investment of 200 billion VND, has been in operation. Initially, passion fruit was considered the “golden fruit” for farmers in Son La, as one hectare of well-grown passion fruit could generate an income of up to 600-700 million VND per year. Nafoods would purchase and process the passion fruit grown in Son La for export to promising international markets such as the UK, France, Switzerland, and the Netherlands.
However, in the past four years, it has become apparent that the supply of raw materials for Nafoods’ agricultural processing plant is no longer guaranteed. Earlier, the company had hoped that when the plant went into operation, it would run at full capacity, processing about 120 tons of fresh fruit per day. However, currently, the plant processes an average of less than ten tons of fruit per day. The number of workers at the plant has also decreased from 100 to about 20. “From February to May this year, our plant was almost completely idle because we did not have enough raw materials to process. This is truly a difficult problem since we are completely dependent on the people for our raw materials,” said Mr. Mai Văn Quang, Deputy Director of Nafoods Tây Bắc Joint Stock Company.
According to Mrs. Nguyễn Thị Hoa, Vice Chairwoman of the Mộc Châu District People’s Committee, this district is one of the largest areas for passion fruit cultivation in Son La province and the Northwest region in general. However, at this time, passion fruit farming is an economically ineffective model. There are many reasons for the shrinking area of passion fruit cultivation. The first reason is that passion fruit is a difficult crop to grow. It is hard to intensively cultivate, and the plants are very susceptible to viruses and pests. Once infected, the disease can spread quickly. In most cases, when a passion fruit garden is infected with viruses or pests, farmers will destroy the entire garden and have to let the land rest for about nine months to a year.
Moreover, after the “golden” period in 2018, the COVID-19 pandemic also caused difficulties for passion fruit exports. This was especially problematic since China was the main market for fresh passion fruit. Additionally, the implementation of the “four-house” linkage model (businesses – government – cooperatives, cooperative groups – people), where cooperatives, led by Nafoods Tây Bắc Joint Stock Company, aimed to develop the passion fruit raw material region in Son La, has also been ineffective. In reality, the role of cooperatives as intermediaries to connect businesses with local farmers has been very weak in recent years. Mr. Quang emphasized that cooperatives have not fulfilled commitments regarding the quantity of fruit and purchase prices with the company.
In light of this situation, the Deputy Director of Nafoods Tây Bắc Joint Stock Company stated that the company had to shift to cooperating with distributors and agents. Specifically, based on the daily processing needs of the plant, the company contacts distributors and agents to place orders and make payments. Meanwhile, the distributors and agents directly purchase from the farmers. Although this method prevents Nafoods from controlling its raw materials for production, it is a temporary solution while the cooperatives fail to meet their commitments.
In the Project “Developing Crop Cultivation towards Safety and Sustainability, Applying High Technology in the 2021-2025 Period, with a Vision Toward 2030,” issued in Decision No. 860/QĐ-UBND by the Son La Provincial People’s Committee to implement the province’s Party’s policy on agricultural product processing industry development in 2021-2025 and toward 2030, the local government set a goal of 4,260 hectares of passion fruit cultivation with a production of 38,740 tons by 2025. By 2030, the area will reach 5,000 hectares with a yield of 50,000 tons, with 1,500 hectares of passion fruit dedicated to processing and export in 2025, and 2,000 hectares by 2030.
However, with the current situation, to achieve the goal of restoring the area of passion fruit cultivation as outlined, both local authorities and businesses will need to collaborate. They must find practical policies and effective solutions to create a positive direction for passion fruit farming in this region in the coming years.
Vietnamese source: https://nhandan.vn/tim-loi-ra-cho-chanh-leo-o-son-la-post787608.html