With 180 hectares of shallots along the coast surrounded by volcanoes and coral reefs, Binh Hai commune is known as the inland capital of shallots. In late April, the purple onion fields in Binh Hai commune, Binh Son district, Quang Ngai province, enter their second harvest of the year. This commune is located on the coast with volcanic rocks and coral reefs, and has soil similar to Ly Son island, nearly 30 km from the mainland, making it suitable for growing onions.
Locals cultivate the crop three times a year, from Tet (Lunar New Year) until around August, yielding approximately 1,800 tons annually. The Binh Hai purple onion brand has been recognized by the Intellectual Property Office, and the area is currently developing a specialized cultivation zone according to VietGAP standards covering over 20 hectares.
Mr. Pham Van Xuyen, Vice Chairman of Binh Hai commune, said that the purple onion variety originated from Ly Son and was brought here for testing more than 30 years ago, opening up a new direction for the people. To date, purple onions have become a traditional occupation in the commune with about 400 households growing them.
The onion farmer loads the freshly harvested shallots onto a wheelbarrow and pushes it to a collection point near the road to transport them home for drying.
After harvesting 4 sao (each sao is 500 m2) of onions, Mr. Huynh Trung Thu in Thanh Thuy village piled up purple onions in front of his house. He even built an additional shed to store the onions because the yard wasn't big enough for the three tons he harvested. With onions priced at around 30,000 VND per kilogram, Mr. Thu's family earns about 90 million VND per harvest, and after deducting expenses, they make a profit of over 50 million VND.
Red onions are bought and sold by traders to Da Nang, Ho Chi Minh City,
Hanoi , and many other provinces and cities throughout the country. While waiting for traders to come and buy them, many people hang bunches of onions on iron frames erected around their yards and in front of their houses, creating rows of red onion fences.
Mr. Nguyen Vien, 70 years old, from Thanh Thuy village, explained that hanging onions on strings or stands serves two purposes: to make full use of space and to help the onions dry faster.
Mrs. Nguyen Thi Be, 78 years old, made an iron frame in front of her house to hang shallots. She said that before she started growing shallots, she only grew other crops like beans and corn, which brought in lower income. After the shallot harvest, she and other households switch to growing coriander in the last months of the year.
After the drying process, the farmer hires or borrows many people from the same village to cut the onions from their stems and roots. Each worker is paid about 150,000-200,000 VND per day.
Mrs. Nguyen Thi Y, 75 years old, used a knife to cut the roots and stems of the shallots from the halved coconut. Shallots have a slightly pungent smell when cut, so in addition to wearing glasses, she had to wrap herself in plastic to prevent the fumes from getting into her eyes.
Many onion fields remain unharvested because farmers planted their crops on different days. Mr. Pham Luu, 59, said that a purple onion crop lasts about 50 days. The onion fields are equipped with automatic irrigation systems costing approximately 2 million VND per sao (a unit of land measurement). Farmers stop irrigating about four days before harvest.
Typically, each plot of shallots requires 100 kg of seeds (costing over 4 million VND). If the harvest is good, each plot can yield nearly 1,000 kg (one ton), however, the plants are also susceptible to pests and diseases such as green caterpillars and leaf miners, which can affect the yield.
With three harvests a year, families in Binh Hai commune can earn an average of hundreds of millions of dong in profit.
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