Red Pine's high-quality plant seed production center in Ia Phang Commune, Chu Puh District, Gia Lai Province. Photo: Thanh Hoa/VNP

Red Pine (Red Pine International Joint Stock Company), a leading supplier of high-quality purple passion fruit seedlings in Gia Lai, Vietnam, is a pioneer in investing in high-quality seedling production to serve the export-oriented Central Highlands market. The company offers the most sought-after passion fruit variety among importers.

Red Pine's technical staff with high-quality passion fruit seedlings. Photo: Thanh Hoa/VNP

Despite entering the market late, Vietnam's passion fruit exports are now among the world's top, trailing only Brazil, Peru, and Ecuador. The primary markets are the EU, Japan, South Korea, China, and Australia. As a result, passion fruit cultivation is expanding rapidly, particularly in the Central Highlands provinces. Currently, Vietnam has 9,500ha of passion fruit, producing nearly 190,000tons, and is among the 18 fruits with an annual output exceeding 100,000tons. Passion fruit cultivation can generate profits of 350-400 million dong (15,000-17,000 US dollars) per ha.

Red Pine workers carefully inspecting the growth of seedlings after planting. Photo: Thanh Hoa/VNP

The majority of Vietnam's passion fruit cultivation is concentrated in the Central Highlands, covering approximately 8,200ha. Gia Lai, with around 4,500ha and an average yield of over 20tons/ha, is considered the passion fruit capital. The province has taken the lead in attracting and concentrating businesses involved in passion fruit seedling production, processing, and marketing. Gia Lai's favorable climate, vast and fertile land, is ideal for cultivating extensive passion fruit plantations. Therefore, for its 2025 vision and 2030 outlook, Gia Lai plans to expand fruit tree acreage to 55,000ha by 2025 and 100,000ha by 2030 (the province currently has about 21,500ha of fruit trees). The four key export fruit trees are passion fruit, bananas, avocadoes, and durian. Passion fruit is expected to cover 20,000ha, making it the largest in the country.

However, the rapid expansion of passion fruit cultivation has also brought about the widespread issue of seedlings with unknown origins and questionable quality, impacting the quality of the final product and posing a threat to the development of the passion fruit export industry.

All parameters such as air, humidity, and irrigation in the nursery are monitored and controlled automatically via smartphone. Photo: Thanh Hoa/VNP

Recognizing this need, several businesses have boldly invested in establishing a high-quality passion fruit seedling production centers in Gia Lai, including Red Pine. In 2021, Red Pine invested in constructing a high-quality seedling center project with a total area of over 120,000m2 , capable of producing up to 25 million seedlings per year, in Ia Phang Commune, Chu Puh District, Gia Lai Province. Watanabe Pipe Vietnam consulted with and designed the project, adopting a box-frame greenhouse structure capable of withstanding up to category 11 typhoons. The entire production area within the greenhouse is protected by a sun-shading and insect-netting system. The seedling production area features a system of shelves, concrete floors, warehouses, isolated storage houses, temperature and humidity self-recording devices, and an automatic smartphone-controlled irrigation system, all designed and integrated in a modern, synchronized manner.

The company has also invested in developing a network of over 50 first-tier distributors across the regions from the Central Highlands to the North to supply seedlings and transfer cultivation techniques directly to farmers. Using imported seedlings from Taiwan (China), Red Pine has developed a new high-quality parent line using modern technology through layering, grafting, and greenhouse cultivation following strict technical procedures. This has resulted in robust plants with high disease resistance, rapid growth, and high yield efficiency, suitable for Vietnam's climate conditions.

Red Pine is capable of producing up to 25 million seedlings per year. Photo: Thanh Hoa/VNP

Red Pine's seedlings have a clear origin and are certified by the Department of Cultivation and the Plant Protection Department (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Vietnam). Therefore, when transferred to farmers, they are guaranteed to be free from diseases and grow well.

In addition to producing and supplying high-quality seedlings, Red Pine also collaborates with local authorities to guide passion fruit growers in using safe inputs and seedlings to reduce costs and focus on production under VietGAP and GlobalGAP standards. The company also promotes value-added chain linkages to meet domestic and export market demands.

Assessing Red Pine's contributions, Nguyen Long Khanh, Head of the Agriculture Department of Chu Puh District, said: "As a high-tech enterprise, Red Pine not only provides a stable source of high-quality passion fruit seedlings for farmers but also creates employment opportunities for local people, with over 300 at peak times. This contributes to the added value of the local agricultural production sector and changes the production mindset of the people".

According to Vuong Trong Khien, Red Pine's technical officer, in addition to passion fruit, the company will explore the development of other promising crop varieties, particularly export-oriented fruit trees, to meet the growing production needs of people in the Central Highlands.

With its well-structured investments and sound strategy, Red Pine aspires to become a trusted provider of high-quality seedlings not only for Gia Lai farmers but also for the entire Central Highlands region and Vietnam as a whole, contributing to enhancing the economic value of key export crops and improving the livelihoods for local communities./.

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• By Thanh Hoa/VNP    Translated by Hong Hanh