Lang Son province in northern Vietnam, bordering China, has elevated macadamia, which until now stayed at trial cultivation, to a strategic export crop. The province has set a target of 6,000-8,000 hectares of planted area by 2030 and, with the processing company Macca & Sachi Lang Son, which obtained an OCOP four-star, as its axis, is advancing the construction of a supply chain that connects everything seamlessly from cultivation through shelling and processing to export. Japan is one of the major importers of macadamia, and the sourcing of the raw material that underpins convenience-store nut snacks leans toward Australia and South Africa. Whether a new origin grows in northern Vietnam is, for Japanese import buyers too, a matter of adding another sourcing card.
The substance of the policy Lang Son province put forward
The starting point was Resolution No. 24 (24-NQ/TU) issued by the Lang Son Provincial Party Committee dated 3 March 2026. This resolution positions macadamia as the province's main cash crop and bundles support measures including a 100% subsidy of seedling costs (up to 30 million VND per hectare). Converted at a guide of 1 yen = about 170 Vietnamese dong, the subsidy ceiling comes to about 180,000 yen per hectare. Hoang Van Trieu, deputy director of the provincial agriculture-and-environment department, said the aim is to form an intensive raw-material origin tied to processing and sales channels.
The figures the policy sets out are 6,000-8,000 hectares of planted area in 2030, a yield of 2.5 tonnes per hectare, and output of roughly 2,100 tonnes. Because simply multiplying the planted-area target range by the yield comes to more than 2,100 tonnes, this output appears to be viewed on a mature-tree-area basis that can actually be expected to yield at the target year, reflecting macadamia's trait of taking several years from planting to harvest. The point that a planted tree does not bear fruit immediately is an indispensable premise for reading origin-building.
Macca & Sachi, the core of processing
Placed at the core of the supply chain is Macca & Sachi Lang Son, which obtained an OCOP four-star (the One Village One Product movement's quality certification) for shelled dry macadamia. The company has secured a raw-material sourcing area on the scale of about 600 hectares across the province and is said to manage raw-material quality through contract linkage with farmers. It is now advancing expansion of its sourcing area and sophistication of its processing technique, at a stage that has an OCOP five-star and full-scale export in view.
This "company at the core, binding farmers together" model is designed to go after the weaknesses that northern Vietnamese produce carries. Because northern mountain crops are shipped piecemeal by small-scale farmers, both quality and quantity are hard to stabilize. If a processing company holds the sourcing area and contracts, it can consolidate lots, align specifications and approach a quality that can endure export. The move to concentrate herb raw materials at a processing hub, Sao Mai's herb-processing plant and the move to bundle fruit by origin cluster share the same idea, and it is reasonable to see that it has begun for northern nuts too.
Its position within world macadamia supply and demand
Measuring Lang Son province's figures against the world yardstick clarifies its standing. World macadamia output is about 343,000 tonnes on the 2025 outlook. The major origins are Australia (over 50,000 tonnes) and South Africa (about 35,000 tonnes), and these two countries occupy the top of output. Vietnam is already among the top 5 exporting countries, and the country as a whole sets out 130,000-150,000 hectares of planted area, 130,000 tonnes of output and US$400 million in export value (about 62 billion yen at roughly 155 yen to the dollar) for 2030.
| Category | 2030 target, area | Output |
|---|---|---|
| Lang Son Province | 6,000〜8,000ha | About 2,100 t |
| Vietnam nationwide | 130,000-150,000 ha | About 130,000 t |
| World total (2025 actual outlook) | – | About 343,000 t |
Placed side by side like this, Lang Son province is no more than a bit player, a few percent by area share, within the national plan. The main origins are, after all, the Central Highlands and the northwest. Even so, the province bets on macadamia because of its location as a border gate and its existing core of a four-star processing company.
The local and industry reception
The local administration rates it as a turning point for rebinding scattered small-scale cultivation into a consolidated raw-material origin. The processing side takes the positive view that a five-star and export are within reach through sourcing-area expansion and technology investment. On the other hand, there are calm voices too. Macadamia takes several years from planting to full-scale harvest, and prices are heavily swayed by the Australian and South African crops. The planted area does not translate directly into revenue, and the point that whether a yield of 2.5 tonnes can be produced stably depends on mastery of cultivation management can be called a reasonable note of caution grounded in the reality of origin-building.
What it means for Japanese import buyers
Japan is one of the major importers of macadamia, and the spread of nut snacks picked up at convenience stores has lifted consumption. But the raw material's source is concentrated in Australia and South Africa, a structure in which weather irregularities and exchange rates in both countries bounce directly back onto cost. If the option of northern-Vietnamese origin grows here, it cannot be ignored in terms of diversifying sourcing. Lang Son province, close to the Chinese border gate, has multiple logistics outlets, making it easy to eye exports to both China and Japan.
That said, it is not a stage where Japanese buyers can move right away. The resolution has been issued and origin-building has only just begun, and neither export volume nor quality specifications are settled. What is realistic is to keep a fixed watch, with the same temperature as the moves of processing hubs like Sao Mai and the origin-bundling Dak Lak fruit cluster, on whether Lang Son province's macadamia processing companies can actually obtain an OCOP five-star and export certification. Only once the hurdles for export to Japan, such as pesticide residues and shelling quality, are cleared does ordering samples or visiting the origin begin to have meaning.
Ripple effects on the market
Even if Lang Son province's move itself is small, overlaying it with Vietnam's origin-building as a whole brings the trend into view. With the state setting out a vision of growing macadamia export value to US$400 million in 2030 and US$2.5 billion in 2050, the fact that a northern border province has begun assembling an integrated processing system on its own is a sign that the base of origins is spreading beyond the Central Highlands. Just as, in fisheries, the shift to China and quality upgrading advance at the same time, China shift of Vietnamese seafood likewise, in nuts too, there is a possibility that origins making "border location x processing value-added" their weapon will increase. For the Japanese market, it becomes a long-term theme of whether, over several years, a new point will be added to a sourcing map that had been all Australia and South Africa.
Summary: what to do now
Lang Son province's macadamia upgrade is still at the stage of policy and targets, a phase where harvest and export track records are yet to accumulate. The next moves interested Japanese food manufacturers and import trading houses should take are three: (1) follow the OCOP grade and export-certification progress of in-province processing companies, starting with Macca & Sachi, every six months; (2) quantify the risk of dependence on Australia and South Africa and write northern-Vietnamese origin into the margin of the procurement plan as a "future third option"; and (3) begin verification from small samples once attainment of the five-star and clearing of the Japan-export hurdles can be confirmed. Now is the preparation period, and getting an observation setup in place ahead of time so as not to miss the moment the origin comes online is a realistic preparation.
