Billionaire Hau Giang is a farmer with 46 hectares of land, growing durian off-season, and every time he sells it, he makes a big profit.

The billionaire in Hau Giang who owns 46 hectares of land, is growing off-season durian and Thai jackfruit, and is in season. He is Mr. Vo Van Em, a farmer in Long Thanh commune, Phung Hiep district. Mr. Vo Van Em was honored to receive a Certificate of Merit from the Prime Minister for his outstanding achievements in production and business; he is an excellent Vietnamese farmer...

Mr. Vo Van Em (commonly known as Chin Em) is a billionaire farmer in Hau Giang, Long Truong 1 hamlet, Long Thanh commune, Phung Hiep district.

Growing durian in the off-season, farmers proactively let durian bear fruit

In mid-March, while most other durian gardens in the Mekong Delta were flowering (favorable crop), Mr. Chin Em's durian garden was still harvesting fruit.

Mr. Chin Em shared: "Currently, my durian garden is still harvesting fruit, there are about 20 tons left before the end of the season, the selling price at the garden at this time is 120 thousand VND/kg, with this price, after deducting costs, I still have a profit of 50-70 thousand VND/kg.

After harvesting, the trees will rest for about a month. At the end of March and the beginning of April of the lunar calendar, I will process the 2025 durian crop and stop in June. According to this plan, durian will bear fruit in November and will be harvested in February 2026."

According to Mr. Chin Em, growing durian is technically more difficult than many other fruit trees and growing durian off-season is even more difficult.

Off-season durian productivity is usually 10-15% lower than in the main season, investment costs are also about 10% higher, but in return the price is 2-3 times higher and especially the output is very favorable, traders come to the garden to buy at high prices and in large quantities.

With his outstanding achievements in the movement "Farmers compete in production, good business, solidarity to help each other get rich, sustainable poverty reduction", Mr. Vo Van Em was honored to receive the Certificate of Merit from the Prime Minister. Photo: Hong Cam

However, in some special cases such as market and weather conditions, gardeners proactively produce fruit to both hit the season and get a good price, not necessarily producing main-season or off-season fruit.

To do that, gardeners must have a lot of experience and must always research the weather and market to prepare for a successful season.

Currently, Mr. Chin Em's family has a total area of ​​46 hectares of garden land, growing 10,000 durian trees, of which 10 hectares with nearly 2,000 trees are bearing fruit.

In the 2024 durian crop, he will harvest 160 tons, with an average bulk price of 80,000 VND/kg for Ri6 durian, and an average monthong durian price of 115,000 VND/kg. It is expected that in the 2025 durian crop, Mr. Chin Em will harvest about 200 tons of various types of durian.

To achieve today's success, Mr. Chin Em recalls: He is like other farmers in this area, coming from a farming family, so when he started his own family, his parents only gave him a few hectares of land to cultivate.

Rice farming has low income, so his family also does fruit purchasing to increase their income. From there, they gradually saved up and bought 16 hectares of rice fields. Despite their diligence and hard work, his family still cannot escape the precarious situation of good harvest but low prices, good prices but bad harvest...

Currently, Mr. Chin Em's family is still harvesting off-season durian, selling at the garden for 120,000 VND/kg. Treating durian trees to bloom and bear fruit off-season is one of the secrets to successfully growing fruit trees of Hau Giang billionaire - Mr. Vo Van Em. Photo: Hong Cam

In 2014, after a period of research and learning from many durian growers in Tien Giang, he boldly converted rice fields to durian. Initially, he converted 3 hectares of rice fields to grow Ri6 durian. After 4 years, he harvested the first durian crop of about 30 tons, with prices ranging from 35,000-37,000 VND/kg.

With 3 hectares of durian land, he earned several times more profit than his family's income from 16 hectares of rice fields in previous years. Since then, he has boldly converted all 16 hectares of rice fields to durian fields. With 16 hectares of rice fields, he has planted 4,000 Ri6 and Monthong durian trees, and currently has 1,000 Ri6 durian trees for harvest.

Because he planted durian later than many households in the area, and had the opportunity to travel to many places to study and research techniques, experience, and markets, after the first durian crop, Mr. Chin Em decided to switch to growing off-season durian.

With strong support from large gardeners in Tien Giang in terms of techniques and fertilizers, it was relatively easy for him to handle durian trees to produce fruit out of season.

Instead of around November, when the rain stops, gardeners start to water the durian trees to make them flower naturally, around September every year, Mr. Chin will pump water to make the trees start to flower.

Durian trees are bearing fruit in the garden of Mr. Chin Em, a billionaire farmer in Hau Giang, in Long Truong 1 hamlet, Long Thanh commune, Phung Hiep district. Photo: Hong Cam

"Growing off-season durian is like playing a risky game. If you win, you win big, but if you lose, you lose badly. The most important thing to note is the weather.

If the tree flowers during the rainy season, the risk is high, requiring durian growers to have high technical skills. For me, applying both technology and manual methods will help me not worry about rain, the flowers will set a lot, and the fruit will be of good quality," Mr. Chin Em shared.

Earn billions from Thai jackfruit

Riding on the success, the durian harvest helped Mr. Chin Em's family to have a surplus. Every year, he saved money to buy and rent more land to grow fruit trees. However, with a short-term land lease (7 years), it was only suitable for growing short-term crops, so Mr. Chin chose to grow Thai jackfruit.

Mr. Chin Em's red-fleshed Indo jackfruit garden. Photo: Hong Cam

With 20 hectares of land rented by his family, Mr. Chin planted 30,000 Thai jackfruit trees. After 2 years, he harvested 400 tons of Thai jackfruit from the first crop, with prices ranging from 25,000-30,000 VND/kg; the second crop yielded higher yields, but due to the impact of the epidemic, the price of Thai jackfruit was only 4,000 VND/kg, but fortunately, all the jackfruit was still sold.

By the third Thai jackfruit crop, with about 200 tons of the first crop, the price fluctuated from 7,000-10,000 VND/kg and more than 200 tons of jackfruit at the end of the crop, the price was 22,000-25,000 VND/kg.

However, after more than 5 years of growing Thai jackfruit, although profitable, Mr. Chin realized that the market price of this variety of tree is unstable, sometimes high, sometimes low, there was even a period when traders did not buy, so he is now gradually switching to the red-fleshed Indonesian jackfruit variety, currently priced at 40,000 VND/kg.

Sharing about his advantages in finding outlets for Thai jackfruit, Mr. Chin said: "To facilitate the output of my family and people in the area, I have established a fruit purchasing cooperative, so my family's entire jackfruit harvest can be proactively supplied, without worrying about output, and the cost is 3,000-4,000 VND/kg higher than selling through middlemen."

With a large area of ​​Thai jackfruit cultivation, there are many by-products from jackfruit (picked young jackfruit), so Mr. Chin Em takes advantage of the ponds between the durian and Thai jackfruit gardens to raise various types of fish, earning tens of millions of dong every year.

In 2022, the Farmers' Association of Phung Hiep district allowed him to visit a goat farm model using jackfruit by-products as food and composting organic fertilizer to fertilize fruit trees. He was supported by the Farmers' Association with 300 million VND from the Fund to support farmers in establishing goat farms. Currently, Mr. Chin's goat farm has over 100 breeding goats, weighing from 30-40kg.

Mr. Chin Em's 1-2 year old durian garden. Photo: Hong Cam

In particular, to expand the area of ​​durian and red-fleshed jackfruit, Mr. Chin is renting more land in Chau Thanh A district to grow these two specialty trees and the Hau Giang Farmers' Association is considering providing 1 billion VND in capital from the Farmers' Support Fund for the model.

From his family's effective production and business model, Mr. Chin has contributed to creating jobs for dozens of workers.

Currently, with a large area of ​​cultivated land, on average Mr. Chin uses 20 regular workers, and during peak harvest season, it can be up to 30 workers, with labor costs from 6-7 million VND/month.

Commenting on old farmer Vo Van Em, Mr. Vo Van Trung, Chairman of the Farmers' Association of Hau Giang province, said: "Uncle Chin Em is a typical example of a hard-working and diligent farmer.

Despite his old age, Uncle Chin is always flexible in production, leading the movement to transform crop and livestock structure, applying science and technology, responding to local policies and actual market requirements.

That's why for decades, Uncle Chin has always been voted as a good farmer and businessman at all levels of the locality.

In particular, he was voted three times as a good farmer and businessman at the provincial level and received a Certificate of Merit from the Provincial People's Committee.

In 2022, Uncle Chin was honored to be voted by the Final Jury of the Vietnam Farmers' Pride Program as the "Outstanding Vietnamese Farmer 2022", and was awarded a Certificate of Merit by the Central Executive Committee of the Vietnam Farmers' Union.

In 2023, Hau Giang billionaire Vo Van Em was honored to receive a Certificate of Merit from the Prime Minister "For his achievements in the movement of good farmers in production and business, contributing to the cause of building socialism and defending the Fatherland".

Source: https://danviet.vn/ty-phu-hau-giang-la-mot-bac-nong-dan-co-46ha-dat-trong-sau-rieng-trai-vu-he-ban-la-trung-lon-luon-20250313151227052.htm