Passionfruit: Government allots $6.2m for project in Vietnam

By Monique Steele of RNZ

New Zealand scientists will share the secrets of horticultural export success with Vietnam to help grow its passionfruit sector.

The Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh met with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon in Wellington on Monday, during an Australasian visit.

The Government announced $6.24 million for a project labelled the Viet Nam Climate-Smart Fruit Value Chain project, or VietFruit, to double its exports of passionfruit.

Plant and Food Research scientists have spent about a decade working on growing the country’s dragonfruit industry there - introducing a new productive growing system that doubled yields and improved fruit quality, thereby returns for growers too.

The project resulted in three new varieties of dragonfruit that have been bred and commercialised.

Now, it’s passionfruit that’s in for an industry transformation.

Plant and Food Research chief executive Mark Piper said its scientists were experts in growing, soil health, pests and pathogens and technology, which would all help local growers there thrive.

“We’ve done quite a bit of work in things like dragonfruit, avocado, so we know the country and the culture well.

“There’s a lot of small farmers and growers in Vietnam, so the idea is to work alongside them and make sure we increase the productivity and resilience of the passion fruit.

New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon met Vietnam Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh this week. Photo / Mark Mitchell

“Ideally, if they could double their exports out of there, that would be fantastic.”

Piper said the partnership would include planting practices, post-harvest and processing work, and then how to export high-value horticultural products.

“For them, it’s such a big part of their economy.

“Prime Minister Pham [Minh Chinh] yesterday at an event [at] Victoria University also talked about how they want to continue to move their people from being in a developing economy into a developed economy over the next 10 years. And so this kind of activity supports that as well.”

Piper said that, as with every international collaboration like this, there were myriad lessons and knowledge that would be brought back home to New Zealand, especially given the differences in climate.

The project is part of a long-term development co-operation to support Vietnam’s agriculture sector, build resilience to climate change and disasters, and develop a more highly skilled and educated workforce.

In the year ended June 2023, New Zealand exported $1.1 billion of total goods and services to Vietnam and imported $1.56b, according to Stats NZ data.

The country of nearly 100 million people was the second-leading export destination for New Zealand apples in the year to June, after China.

- RNZ