With a favorable location and advantage of fertile red basalt soil, Gia Lai province is becoming an attractive destination for investors in agricultural sector. Standardized raw material areas, closed linkage chains and green production thinking are opening up great opportunities for Gia Lai agricultural products to break into the global market.
Advantages of paving the way
Gia Lai currently has about 977,000 hectares of agricultural production land, of which 770,000 hectares are cultivated annually, among the localities with the largest production scale in the country. With a large, contiguous and relatively flat land fund, the province has favorable conditions to form concentrated specialized areas, attracting businesses to invest in building a sustainable production - processing - consumption chain of agricultural products.
Notably, Gia Lai owns more than 753,000 hectares of red-yellow soil, most of which is basalt red soil, a fertile, loose, fast-draining soil, very suitable for industrial crops and fruit trees. This is the foundation for development of coffee, pepper, rubber, durian, banana, passion fruit and even valuable medicinal herbs.
According to Department of Agriculture and Environment of Gia Lai province, the whole province has more than 107,000 hectares of coffee, with an output of about 333,000 tonnes; 8,500 hectares of durian producing 57,700 tonnes of fruit; 7,850 hectares of bananas with an output of 316,000 tonnes; and 5,650 hectares of passion fruit producing 213,000 tonnes per year. Of which, durian and passion fruit are becoming two strategic commodities with great export potential in the coming period.
To date, Gia Lai has been granted 308 growing area codes with a total area of over 10,700 hectares, including 255 export growing area codes. Along with that, 40 fruit packaging facilities with a capacity of about 1,650-1,800 tonnes/day have been put into operation, helping to increase processing capacity and control product quality.
The provincial agricultural sector is also completing documents to grant 119 new growing area codes (over 2,280 hectares), focusing on key crops such as bananas, durian, passion fruit, chili, grapefruit and pepper. Expanding growing area codes is an important step to improve traceability capacity and meet technical requirements from import markets.
Notably, the whole province currently has more than 70,675 hectares of crops certified by VietGAP, GlobalGAP and organic, an increase of more than 1,200 hectares compared to the end of 2024. In the first 9 months of 2025 alone, 1,211 hectares were newly granted GlobalGAP certification, including 319 hectares of durian, 76 hectares of grapefruit and 816 hectares of banana.
Mr. Tran Xuan Khai, Head of Provincial Department of Crop Production and Plant Protection, said that agricultural sector is promoting conversion of crop structure, taking advantage of rice land that is often dry or land for growing industrial crops with low efficiency to grow vegetables, fruit trees and medicinal plants. At the same time, it is necessary to connect raw material areas with processing factories, produce in chains, and trace the origin clearly, aiming to expand the export market sustainably.
Pioneering Enterprises
Along with government, many pioneering enterprises have contributed to raising the brand of Gia Lai agricultural products on the export map.
Notable among these are Vinh Hiep Company Limited, Hoa Trang Gia Lai Import-Export Company Limited, Gia Lai Livestock Joint Stock Company, Hung Son High-Tech Agriculture Joint Stock Company, Louis Dreyfus Trading and Processing Company Limited, Hung Thang Loi Gia Lai Company Limited, Doveco Gia Lai Vegetable and Fruit Import-Export Company Limited... These enterprises not only export, but also proactively invest in building raw material areas, developing processing technology and transparent traceability, helping Gia Lai agricultural products meet international standards.
Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Mai, Director of Gia Lai Livestock Joint Stock Company, said that the enterprise is managing 1,700 hectares of fruit trees, of which 1,380 hectares of South American banana varieties have met GlobalGAP standards. Each year, the company exports about 62,000 tons of fresh bananas to the markets of Japan, Korea and China.
“We are continuing to invest in modern packaging lines, improving product quality to expand export markets to other countries in Asia,” Mr. Mai shared.
From another perspective, Mr. Le Hoang Linh, Director of raw material area project of Hung Son High-tech Agriculture Joint Stock Company, said that the banana consumption market in Singapore, Malaysia and the Middle East is currently very potential.
“We are calculating to expand planting area to meet increasing demand from partners. Developing sustainable raw material areas will help Gia Lai improve its position in regional agricultural supply chain,” Mr. Linh emphasized.
Mr. Doan Ngoc Co, Deputy Director of Department of Agriculture and Environment of Gia Lai province, said: The locality is focusing on developing products with high economic value and high demand from the international market such as coffee, pepper, cashew, rubber, and tropical fruit trees including banana, avocado, passion fruit, durian. In addition, the province is also expanding production of medicinal herbs such as red lingzhi mushroom, turmeric, lemongrass, ginger, etc., targeting new potential market segments.
“About 50% of the province's crop area has been produced according to international standards, demonstrating a strong shift from mass production to sustainability, linking with businesses throughout value chain. Currently, Gia Lai coffee is present in more than 60 countries, fresh fruit is mainly exported to Japan, Korea, China and processed fruit is being promoted to the European market”, Mr. Doan Ngoc Co informed.

Source: Vitic/ congthuong.vn