Farmers harvest pineapples in Cư Đrăm Commune, Krông Bông District, the Central Highlands province of Đắk Lắk. — VNA/VNS Photo Tuấn Anh

ĐẮK LẮK — Pineapple plants have grown well in recent years in remote communes and ethnic group areas of Krông Bông District.

A number of households have been able to escape poverty thanks to growing pineapple.

This is also a new direction for economic development in the remote district of Đắk Lắk Central Highlands province.

Local authorities are trying to find appropriate and effective solutions to expand the scale of this crop.

They want to bring economic efficiency and sustainable development by linking production with market demand.

Hunger eradication

Võ Tấn Trực, Director of the Krông Bông District Department of Agriculture and Rural Division, said that local people had been growing pineapple for more than 10 years, and recently had significantly expanded pineapple area.

The plants are very suitable for hilly areas, can be harvested all year round, have a strong consumer market, and are purchased by traders at high prices.

Many pineapple growing households, especially ethnic people, have stable incomes and can gradually improve their lives and escape poverty.

One successful pineapple grower is Sín Mí Chá, who lives in Ea Uôl Village, Cư Pui Commune.

After studying a number of pineapple growing models in the village, in 2021, Chá invested VNĐ40 million (US$1,500) to buy 20,000 seedlings to plant on 1ha of land.

After two years of care, his pineapple garden yielded its first crop with an output of more than 30 tonnes.

Chá earned a profit of VNĐ200 million ($7,800).

If Chá grows corn and cassava, when the crop is good, his profit is only VNĐ50 million ($1,900) per hectare, while pineapple gives four more times even as the investment cost is lower.

“Thanks to growing pineapples, my family has escaped poverty and can expand our farming scale. This year, pineapple productivity and prices are stable, promising a bumper crop. In the near future, we plan to buy more land to expand our pineapple growing area and increase our income," said Chá.

Feeling happy that this year's pineapples have achieved good productivity and prices, Trần Ngọc Anh of Chàm B Village, Cư Đrăm Commune, said that his family started growing pineapples in 2020.

The garden was converted from land which had been for corn and cassava.

Realising that pineapple is a drought-resistant plant that does not require much care, has low investment and brings higher income compared to other crops, Anh now grows three hectares of pineapples.

This year his garden has a good yield of about 25-30 tonnes per hectare.

Anh makes a profit of VNĐ130 million ($5,100) per hectare.

Cư Đrăm Commune has the largest pineapple area in Krông Bông District with more than 2,000ha, accounting for 82.2 per cent of the district's pineapple area.

Deputy Chairman of the Cư Đrăm Commune People's Committee Trần Đức Sơn said that in recent years, pineapple has become one of the key local crops.

Cư Đrăm region has soil and climate suitable for pineapple trees, and the people's experience growing the crop and good techniques will result in good yields and quality.

"But, the pineapple consumption market at present still depends on traders. For sustainable and effective development, it is still necessary to expand and stabilise the market, especially linkages in production to improve the fruit’s value," said Sơn.

Production linkages

Lê Văn Thắm, a resident in Village 2 who has more than 10 years of experience growing pineapples, said that in previous years, May to June was the main pineapple harvest season, so pineapples were often difficult to sell at that time.

In the past three years, he has applied science and technology to farming so that the fruit can be harvested all year round, avoiding market saturation.

Although pineapple plants were more profitable than previous crops, people were still concerned about their output, said Thắm.

“It is necessary to develop diverse products from pineapple, as well as target the export market. To do this, cooperation between local authorities, businesses and growers is needed,” said Thắm.

Director Trực said that the district signed agreements with the unit that purchases, processes and consumes all pineapples of the district with a fairly high insurance price of VNĐ15,000 ($0.5) per fruit.

Currently the highest pineapple price is VNĐ18,000 ($0.7) per fruit.

The district will organise training sessions on pineapple planting and care techniques for local farmers to improve farming results.

The district strives to have 4,000-5,000ha of pineapples by 2025-30, said Trực. — VNS