AgriInnovation

This afternoon, in the middle of a long working day, if you pour yourself a glass of lightly chilled passion fruit juice, you may notice something very clearly: passion fruit does more than quench your thirst. It carries a distinctive flavor—gently tart, deeply aromatic, unmistakably tropical yet never overpowering. In this week’s Afternoon Tea with KisStartup, we take a closer look at Vietnamese passion fruit—an industry that is growing rapidly and holds remarkable potential for value-added processing.

From a familiar fruit to an “export star”

Few would have imagined that from a backyard fruit, Vietnam has now entered the top 10 passion fruit exporters globally. In 2023, export value reached approximately USD 222.5 million, and if growth momentum continues, exports could reach USD 240–250 million by 2025. Vietnamese passion fruit is now present in more than 20 markets, including China, the EU, and Australia, and is completing the final steps to enter the U.S. market.

This reflects a critical shift: passion fruit is no longer just a fresh fruit for domestic consumption, but a global industrial ingredient for beverages, processed foods, desserts, and functional products.

Natural advantages, perfectly aligned

Vietnam enjoys conditions that few passion fruit–producing countries can match. The Central Highlands—accounting for over 86% of planted area and more than 90% of output—offers a cool plateau climate and fertile basalt soil. Harvest can begin after just 4–5 months, with high and stable yields, and in many areas, production is possible year-round—an advantage highly valued by international buyers.

Both purple and yellow Vietnamese passion fruit are praised for their strong aroma, balanced sweet–sour taste, and high juice content. Purple varieties suit fresh consumption, desserts, and premium beverages, while yellow varieties are ideal for industrial processing due to their high yield, stable color, and consistency.

Value lies in deep processing

Notably, more than 80% of Vietnam’s passion fruit output is already processed rather than exported fresh. This provides a strong foundation for higher value creation. Current products include juice, frozen purée, and concentrates—widely used in beverages, ice cream, bakery, yogurt, and functional foods.

Yet the potential goes far beyond juice. From an innovation perspective, passion fruit can evolve into:

• Premium purée and concentrates for beverages and FMCG
• Syrups, toppings, and bases for the F&B sector
• Extracts rich in polyphenols and natural vitamin C for functional foods
• Freeze-dried or spray-dried powders for snacks and instant drinks
• Even natural flavorings to replace synthetic aromas in high-end products

Value creation is not just about technology, but about designing products that truly match market needs rather than selling raw materials.

A rapidly opening market

The global passion fruit market is projected to grow at over 5% annually, potentially reaching nearly USD 7 billion in the early 2030s. Consumer trends are strongly favoring natural beverages, tropical flavors, and clean-label ingredients—all areas where passion fruit excels.

China’s phytosanitary protocol, Australia’s market opening, and the upcoming approval from the U.S. are highly positive signals. However, these opportunities come with stricter requirements on traceability, plant health, food safety, and sustainability.

The challenge ahead

For Vietnamese passion fruit to grow not only in volume but also in value, the path forward is clear: standardize varieties and growing regions, invest more deeply in advanced processing, and build a strong reputation for Vietnamese passion fruit as a reliable, high-quality ingredient. This is also fertile ground for innovation-driven enterprises, agri-food startups, and technology-based collaborations.

This afternoon, when you take a sip of passion fruit juice, you may simply feel refreshed by its aroma and coolness. But behind that flavor lies an entire industry in transformation—from a familiar tropical fruit to a high-value global ingredient. That is the story KisStartup hopes to share with you in every Wednesday Afternoon Tea: seeing Vietnamese agricultural products not only through the lens of consumption, but through an ecosystem mindset and a long-term future.

See you at the next Afternoon Tea with KisStartup.

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Nguyễn Đặng Tuấn Minh

In the agricultural ecosystem, spices have long been viewed as a small, low-value market where differentiation is difficult. Yet in this seemingly old and overlooked sector, a new generation of startups is proving the opposite: with a reimagined business model and targeted investment in supply-chain technology, spices can absolutely become a large-scale, sustainable, and venture-backable industry.

Looking at Growcoms in India, Agricorp in Nigeria, and Trianon Spices in Tanzania, one common pattern emerges: they do not succeed because of spices; they succeed because they rethink the entire value chain—from farms, processing, and logistics to market access and data. Spices are merely the entry point; the redesigned value chain is the real product.

1. Growcoms – When a Marketplace Learns to Manage Complexity

Growcoms’ appeal lies not in spices but in their ability to build a system of management rather than a mere e-marketplace. The spice sector is highly fragmented: smallholder farmers, scattered factories, and B2B buyers demanding strict standards yet lacking trust in suppliers. Growcoms steps into this gap by orchestrating the chain—procurement, testing, blending, packaging, traceability, and even developing new seasonings for FMCG clients.

Understanding that “buy–sell” is never enough, Growcoms built capabilities in quality control, data, and risk management—the things buyers are actually willing to pay for. They don’t need another marketplace; they need a system that guarantees each shipment can be traced back to every field, every processing batch, every testing standard.

Their most defensible competitive advantage is exactly this: supply-chain data accumulated over years. A new team can build a factory, but it cannot replicate the historical traceability and quality records recognized by global FMCG buyers.

2. Agricorp – Treating Spice Export Like a Serious Industrial Sector

Nigeria grows vast amounts of ginger yet lacks a global brand. Agricorp recognized this gap and refused to follow the traditional trader model. They invested in raw-material zones, built factories, established traceability, and standardized processes to bring Nigerian spices into demanding international markets.

What’s notable is that Agricorp doesn’t chase flashy tech. They pursue useful technology: farm-management systems, stable processing protocols, shipment traceability, and efficient logistics. For them, tech is a tool to reduce risk, increase reliability, and secure long-term contracts directly with buyers—where the real profit lies.

This approach fits the spice industry perfectly, where global buyers are obsessed with risk: quality, residues, microbiology, moisture, contamination. Whoever solves these risks wins the market. Agricorp did exactly that—and was rewarded with tens of millions of dollars in Series A funding.

3. Trianon Spices – When “Impact” Becomes a Business Model

Trianon doesn’t talk much about technology, but they focus on what the market values most today: spices must carry stories of soil, farmers, and sustainability. They source from more than a thousand farmers, teach regenerative agriculture, reduce chemical use, restore soil health, and improve quality. Then they process and sell to the EU—where buyers are willing to pay premiums for organic, fair-trade, and regenerative products.

Trianon succeeds because they understand that in the premium segment, buyers purchase both the story and the real value. Their core capability is not just factories or farms; it’s their ability to integrate impact into the product—and translate that into legitimate, transparent, sustainable price premiums.

The surprising part is that this model is not just socially impactful—Trianon’s profit margins have increased steadily year after year. Sustainability here is not a slogan; it is a business capability.

What Actually Makes These Startups Successful?

Three layers of capabilities set these startups apart from traditional spice businesses:

First, they see spices as a data industry.
Each shipment isn’t just cinnamon, pepper, or ginger; it’s a dataset—farm origin, quality parameters, processing steps, active compounds, microbiology, moisture, compliance. When data is standardized, global buyers trust you, and you can scale. Without data, everything is risk.

Second, they control the bottlenecks others ignore.
In spices, the bottleneck is always standardization and traceability—the factors that worry buyers most. The startup that solves this owns a lasting advantage.

Third, they don’t confine themselves to being “an agricultural company.”

Growcoms sells quality-management services.

Agricorp sells supply-chain reliability.

Trianon sells sustainability and impact.
Spices are merely the medium; real value lies in supply-chain thinking, technology, and social impact.

A Direction for Vietnam

Vietnam has ginger, pepper, cinnamon, star anise, and chili—more than Nigeria or Tanzania. What we lack is not raw materials but business models capable of addressing global bottlenecks:

• quality standardization
• supply stability
• deep traceability
• transparency and sustainability
• value-added product design instead of raw-material export

By learning from these startups, Vietnam can absolutely build spice-tech models for Northern ginger, Yên Bái–Lào Cai cinnamon, Central Highlands pepper, or Quảng Ngãi chili. If we do, we won’t just export spices—we’ll export transparent supply chains, sustainable stories, and new standards for the Vietnamese spice industry.

That is the real value—and exactly what investors, global buyers, and future consumers are seeking.

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