A 43-year-old farmer in Thăng Phương hamlet, Trà Tân commune, has turned land once used mainly for acacia and secondary crops into a durian orchard of more than 800 trees, Tuổi Trẻ reported. He began trying fruit trees in 2013.
About 40 of the durian trees have produced a harvest. The report puts average income at around 15 million dong per tree per season, and about 27 million dong for the best tree. This season he has sold more than two tonnes and still has over a tonne to pick, and he expects roughly 300 million dong from durian this year. The farm also has more than 1,000 banana trees, mangosteen, citrus, guava, dragon fruit and over 11,000 areca palms. The report says he recommends spacing durian trees 8–10 metres apart.
The article gives no total area, per-kilogram price or yield per tree, and the figures are the farmer's own. The chair of the commune Farmers' Association also commented on the farm.
Why it matters: Uplands communes in the former Quảng Nam half of Da Nang have long depended on acacia for income. A working durian plot is a small data point on whether fruit growing is a realistic alternative for hill farmers, though only a fraction of these trees have fruited so far.
Sources
This story was compiled by the Da Nang Voice news desk from the published sources listed above. Facts, figures and quotes are attributed to those sources; Da Nang Voice did not conduct interviews for it unless the text says so. Corrections are dated and noted at the top of the story. Read our corrections policy. Spotted an error? Tell us.
