Capital of purple onion Quang Ngai

With 180 hectares of purple onions on the coast surrounded by volcanoes and coral reefs, Binh Hai commune is known as the capital of purple onions on the mainland.

At the end of April, the purple onion fields in Binh Hai commune, Binh Son district, Quang Ngai province entered the second harvest of the year. This commune is located on the coast with volcanic rocks, coral reefs, and soil similar to Ly Son island, nearly 30 km from the mainland, suitable for onion cultivation.

People grow three crops a year, from Tet to around August, with an output of about 1,800 tons a year. The locality has been recognized by the Intellectual Property Office for the Binh Hai purple onion brand and is building a specialized growing area according to VietGAP standards with over 20 hectares.

Mr. Pham Van Xuyen, Vice Chairman of Binh Hai Commune, said that the purple onion variety originated from Ly Son, and was brought here for testing more than 30 years ago, opening up a new direction for the people. To date, purple onion has become a traditional profession in the commune with about 400 households growing it.

The onion field owner loaded the harvested purple onions onto a wheelbarrow and pushed it to a gathering point near the road to take home to dry.

After harvesting 4 sao of onions (each sao is 500 m2), Mr. Huynh Trung Thu in Thanh Thuy village filled his house with purple onions. He also built an additional shed to store onions because this yard was not enough for the three tons of onions harvested. With the price of onions at about 30,000 VND per kg, each onion crop, Mr. Thu's family earned about 90 million VND, minus expenses, making a profit of more than 50 million VND.

Purple onions are bought and sold by traders to Da Nang, Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi and many other provinces in the country. While waiting for traders to come and buy, many people hang bunches of onions on iron frames erected around the yard and in front of their houses, creating purple onion fences.

Mr. Nguyen Vien, 70 years old, in Thanh Thuy village, explained that hanging onions on wires and racks has two purposes: to make full use of space and to let the onions dry quickly.

Mrs. Nguyen Thi Be, 78 years old, made an iron frame in front of her house to hang purple onions. She said that before she started growing onions, she only grew other crops such as beans, corn... with lower income. After the onion season ended, she and other households switched to growing coriander in the last months of the year.

After the drying stage, the field owner hires or borrows many people from the same village to cut the onion from the stem and roots. Each worker is paid about 150,000-200,000 VND per day.

Mrs. Nguyen Thi Y, 75 years old, used a knife to cut the roots and stems of the onion from the coconut. When cut, the onion is a bit spicy, so in addition to wearing glasses, she had to wear plastic wrap to keep the spicy smell from getting into her eyes.

There are still many onion fields that have not been harvested because the owners planted the seeds on different days. Mr. Pham Luu, 59 years old, said that a crop of purple onions lasts about 50 days. The onion fields have invested in automatic irrigation systems at a cost of about 2 million VND per sao. About 4 days before harvest, the owners will stop watering.

Normally, each sao of purple onion requires 100 kg of seeds (costing more than 4 million VND). If the season is good, each sao can yield nearly 1,000 kg (one ton), however, the crop is also susceptible to pests such as smooth green worms, leaf miners... affecting the yield.

With three crops a year, on average families in Binh Hai commune can earn hundreds of millions of dong.

Pham Linh

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