Strictly managing fertilizers, controlling active residue limits, and accelerating origin traceability... aim to guarantee safe agricultural products for both export and domestic consumption.

Vietnamese passion fruit establishes market standing thanks to superior varieties and deep processing

From a crop with virtually no presence on the global export map around 15 years ago, Vietnam has risen to hold the world's number one position in concentrated passion fruit exports.

Currently, the entire country possesses approximately 20,000 hectares of passion fruit, with total export turnover (official and unofficial channels) reaching about 1.5 billion USD. Within which, deep-processed products alone bring in approximately 450 million USD, while fresh passion fruit exported to Europe reaches around 60 million USD.

Mr. Nguyen Manh Hung, Chairman and General Director of Nafoods Group, shared that over the past nearly 10 years, the enterprise has successfully researched and selected 6 proprietary passion fruit varieties, occupying approximately 70% of the domestic passion fruit seed market share and contributing to shaping Vietnam's passion fruit commodity sector.

According to Mr. Hung, passion fruit also possesses the advantage of being a short-term industrial crop—taking merely around 6 months to harvest—which can be intercropped with coffee, durian, and various other crops. Applying high technology can allow growers' incomes to reach over 1 billion VND/ha/year.

According to leadership from Nafoods, the success of passion fruit demonstrates that a commodity sector can make major strides forward when enterprises invest comprehensively from seeds and raw material zones to processing and market development, rather than concentrating solely on exporting raw products.

According to testing results from several laboratories—including Nafoods' laboratory network—multiple agricultural shipments are receiving residue warnings when exported to demanding markets like the European Union (EU) and the United States.

Not only passion fruit, but commodities such as mangoes, mandarins, bananas, dragon fruit, and pineapples must all satisfy increasingly strict regulations regarding plant protection chemical residues.

According to Mr. Hung, a number of active substances prohibited across many markets remain on the authorized usage list in Vietnam. To maintain export advantages, Mr. Hung evaluated that the passion fruit sector specifically and fruits/vegetables generally must continue elevating production standards, controlling input materials, and strictly satisfying regulations across each individual market.

Mr. Hung recommended reviewing and removing active substances that are no longer suitable; tightening management over the production and trade of plant protection chemicals; and severely handling counterfeit or non-compliant pesticides. Priority should be given to enterprises researching and breeding crop varieties resilient to climate change. Concurrently, long-term policies spanning 5–10 years should be formulated to establish a foundation for safe raw material zones, domestic market supply, and sustainable exports.

In addition, farmers need comprehensive guidance regarding active substances, withdrawal periods, and maximum residue limits across specific markets to protect consumer health and avoid forfeiting export opportunities.

Proposing to elevate durian into a national key commodity sector

Drawing from experiences in passion fruit, Mr. Nguyen Manh Hung noted that for durian to develop sustainably, it must follow directions of safe production, input material control, and accelerated deep processing. Within which, managing plant protection chemicals on durian trees carries immense importance because cross-contamination risks to other crops remain very large.

According to Mr. Hung, durian has become a billion-dollar export commodity sector yet remains heavily dependent on the Chinese market. When that market alters policies or tightens technical requirements, fresh fruit consumption bears massive impacts.

"Mechanisms and policies are needed to promote deep processing for this commodity sector," Mr. Hung stated.

Mr. Le Anh Trung, Chairman of the Dak Lak Durian Association, evaluated that Vietnamese durian currently lacks a unified development strategy spanning raw material zones, processing, and market access.

Currently, Vietnam possesses over 180,000 hectares of durian, with 2025 export turnover reaching nearly 4 billion USD. However, while Thailand has designated durian as a national key commodity sector, Vietnam continues developing in a fragmented manner, with each locality executing differently.

From that reality, the Dak Lak Durian Association recommended that the Government soon add durian to the group of national key commodity sectors. Concurrently, a National Master Plan should be formulated for sector development, synchronously investing in raw material zones, processing, logistics, origin traceability, and branding; alongside establishing a National Coordinating Board to unify management from production through export.

At the Conference with industry associations on promoting agriculture, forestry, and fishery exports in the final 6 months of 2026, organized recently by the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, Deputy Minister Nguyen Hoang Hiep stated that the Ministry will accelerate origin traceability to control agricultural product quality across the entire chain.

"We guarantee clean markets not solely for export, but clean for 100 million Vietnamese people," Deputy Minister Nguyen Hoang Hiep emphasized.

Currently, Vietnam maintains nearly 20,000 recognized fertilizer types on its authorized list, making it difficult for residents to identify and select, while adding complexity to the market. Moving forward, the Ministry will coordinate closely with enterprises and associations to review, streamline the list, and strictly manage fertilizers.

According to Deputy Minister Nguyen Hoang Hiep, controlling chemical residues represents one of the core criteria of agricultural product quality. The Ministry will coordinate with enterprises and associations to deploy concrete solutions and prove results through practical outcomes.

Source: Bao Nong nghiep va Moi truong