Passion fruit growers are struggling because of "plummeting" prices.

07:54, May 15, 2023

In recent years, the high price of passion fruit has caused farmers in the province to rush to plant it. However, in the past two weeks, the price of passion fruit has suddenly “plummeted”, causing growers to suffer heavy losses.

“Sitting on the fire”

Krong Buk district is one of the localities with a large area of passion fruit, with more than 160 hectares, the output is estimated at about 2,000 tons. In recent years, passion fruit has been considered a crop that brings quite high economic efficiency to local people. However, the current price of passion fruit is falling to only 3,500 - 7,000 VND/kg, making farmers worried.

Passion fruit growers in Ea Kar district are worried because prices are "plummeting".

Ms. Ho Thi Lan Anh's family (Cu Ne commune, Krong Buk district) has 2 sao of passion fruit intercropped in a coffee garden. It is the peak season, so on average her family picks twice a week (about 400 kg) but can only sell it for 3,500 VND/kg. Meanwhile, it is the dry season, so her family has to water the passion fruit garden regularly. The current electricity price has increased, estimated to cost more than 1.7 million VND/time of pumping water. Ms. Lan Anh lamented: "Not to mention the cost of fertilizers and pesticides, with prices like this, the passion fruit harvested is not enough to cover the electricity cost for watering. If we don't pick, the fruit will fall all over the ground, my family is like "sitting on fire" because we have spent a large amount of production costs but have not recovered much."

Not only in Krong Buk district, but many households growing passion fruit in Ea Kar district are also restless when passion fruit is ripe but the price is low. According to statistics from the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Ea Kar district, the locality currently has about 210 hectares of passion fruit, mainly concentrated in the communes of Xuan Phu, Cu Ni, Cu Elang, and Chu Prong. Currently, the price of passion fruit that traders buy in bulk from people ranges from 5,000 - 6,000 VND/kg, much lower than last year (from 15,000 - 20,000 VND/kg).

Mr. Dam Duc Hiep's family (Xuan Phu commune, Ea Kar district) has 4 sao of passion fruit that are currently harvesting for the first time, with a yield of more than 3 tons. Mr. Hiep shared that in November 2022, he converted his family's old coffee area to grow passion fruit because he saw the high selling price. At the beginning of the harvest season, traders bought it for 12,000 - 13,000 VND/kg. However, after the April 30 and May 1 holidays, the price of passion fruit dropped dramatically, to only about 5,000 VND/kg. Mr. Hiep sadly said: "On average, the cost of investing in seeds, fertilizers, irrigation, and care for one sao of passion fruit is about 10 million VND. If we continue to sell at this price, growers will only lose money."

Why?

According to Mr. Hoang Van Minh, Head of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Krong Buk district, currently, the area of passion fruit in the locality has exceeded the planning by 2-3 times. Although people have been advised to be cautious when expanding the planting area, however, in late 2022 and early 2023, passion fruit "increased in price" to 20,000 - 30,000 VND/kg, causing many farmers to compete to expand the area for immediate profits, even destroying perennial plants to plant. Along with the rapid development of the area, the current production of passion fruit is still lacking in connection with processing and consumption facilities. Therefore, when new plantings are massive and uncontrolled, when the mass harvest season comes, the supply exceeds demand, causing prices to "plummet".

Mr. Dam Duc Hiep (Xuan Phu commune, Ea Kar district) harvests passion fruit.

Through practical research, most people grow passion fruit spontaneously, so they lack planting and care techniques. Currently, many passion fruit areas have been infected with betel leaf disease, root rot, and fungus. These diseases spread quickly through sucking insects and there is no medicine to prevent and treat them, the only way is to destroy them. In addition, many people arbitrarily graft and propagate, increasing the risk of disease in passion fruit. This makes the productivity and quality of passion fruit increasingly poor, leading to low prices.

Although the area has increased, passion fruit production is still fragmented, small-scale, and not concentrated. Most of the passion fruit growing area is still on a household scale, without forming large-scale production areas, following a sustainable chain, and without linkages in production and consumption. In addition, passion fruit is mainly intercropped in orchards, making it difficult to invest as well as manage product quality and consumption. Therefore, people should pay attention to the recommendations of professional agencies, and should not arbitrarily plant or massively expand the area for immediate profits, to avoid the situation of supply exceeding demand.

Khanh Huyen - Tuyet Mai

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