In the Con Chinh area of Yen Binh district, Thanh Hoa province, rice paddies and sugarcane fields are being replaced by fields of the edible flower thien ly (Vietnamese: hoa thien ly; Tonkin jasmine). According to a report carried by the local agriculture paper Nong nghiep Moi truong on 28 July 2026, about 30 ha in Con Chinh village have been converted to thien ly, of which 12 ha in Yen Binh district have already obtained VietGAP certification. The flower fields, which can be harvested once every two days and at peak yield nearly 100 kg per harvest, become a sourcing candidate that has been hard for Japanese buyers of dried flowers and prepared-food ingredients to see until now.
Thien ly is an edible flower that underpins Vietnamese home cooking
Thien ly is a climbing plant in the milkweed family that blooms clusters of pale yellow-green small flowers. In Vietnam the buds and young flowers are eaten everyday as "canh hoa thien ly (thien ly flower soup)," a familiar ingredient. Because it is trained up a trellis, once planted the harvest continues for several years, with no need to replant each season like rice. Being an edible flower that is hard to spray with pesticides conversely creates good compatibility with pesticide-free or reduced-pesticide cultivation. The report, too, frames it as having near-year-round demand for restaurants, catering facilities and supermarkets, with cultivation that avoids pesticide spraying fitting the orientation toward food safety.
Of 30 ha, 12 ha are VietGAP; harvested once every two days at 38,000 dong per kg
The protagonist of the report is Nguyen Van Hanh, who grows thien ly in the district. Conventional rice, sugarcane and pumpkin did not pay even in a good harvest because prices collapsed, so he switched to thien ly, a climber that keeps yielding over many years. After building a trellis and preparing the soil, he harvests every other day, with 100 kg per harvest at peak and a stable 20 to 30 kg even on average. The shipping unit price is usually 38,000 to 40,000 VND/kg, rising to 50,000 VND/kg early in the season.
| Item | Figure | Yen equivalent (1 yen ≈ 170 VND) |
|---|---|---|
| Converted area across Con Chinh | About 30 ha | — |
| VietGAP-certified area (Yen Binh) | 12ha | — |
| Harvest frequency | Once every two days | — |
| Yield per harvest (peak / average) | About 100 kg / 20 to 30 kg | — |
| Usual unit price | 38,000〜40,000VND/kg | about 224 to 235 yen/kg |
| Early-season unit price | 50,000VND/kg | about 294 yen/kg |
All are figures stated in the same Nong nghiep Moi truong article, and the yen conversions are rough estimates at an indicative rate. The point that they swing with actual conditions and deal terms should be discounted in the reading.
Cash income every other day changed a rice-only village
Farmers worn out by the price crashes of rice farming feel a solid response in thien ly, with its fine-grained harvest intervals and fast turnover. With the once rice-only village switching to cash income every other day, there is reportedly also a move of the younger generation returning to the fields. On the other hand, the report points out risks such as growth stagnation from prolonged high temperatures in 2026 and seedling die-off from nematodes and fungal disease. Nguyen Huu Thuy, who leads the region's trade association, lists obtaining OCOP (One Commune One Product) certification, shifting to organic cultivation, and creating added value through processing and branding as the next challenges. There is already an intent on the region side not to end with fresh flowers but to expand into drying and processing.
As dried or frozen semi-finished goods, it can reach Japanese prepared-food ingredients
Japan's edible-flower market is led by greenhouse cultivation in Nagano and Aichi, with both price and supply volume limited. Thien ly is unfamiliar in Japan as is, but turned into dried or frozen goods it has room to develop as an ingredient for soups, stir-fries and prepared dishes. The fineness of harvesting once every two days is a freshness risk for fresh produce, but on a processing premise it is suited to gathering a planned, consolidated volume. The fact that 12 ha are already VietGAP-certified is a starting point against Japanese acceptance inspections that ask about pesticide residues and record-keeping.
However, importing fresh flowers faces high walls of quarantine and freshness, so the realistic entry point is semi-finished goods already primary-dried or frozen locally. the case of Dai An in Da Nang, which turned low-yielding paddies into lotus and tourism shows that flower-type conversions became profitable only when combined with processing and experiences. Switching from commodity goods to niche crops is advancing in many places, and the area near Ho Chi Minh City that turned acidic soil into a VietGAP guava orchard and Ha Tinh's native-variety honey that sells at eight times the bulk price thien ly joins the same flow as these.
The first thing to check is drying and freezing processing capacity
If you make contact, it is realistic to use the Yen Binh district trade association, which holds VietGAP certification, as the point of contact and to enter via a trial deal as dried or frozen semi-finished goods rather than fresh. Since it sells itself on near-pesticide-free cultivation, you want to check early whether pesticide-residue test data and cultivation records can be submitted. Given the reported supply variability from prolonged high temperatures and disease, you want to assess supply stability over several seasons rather than a single year. Building a relationship in step with the region's moves toward OCOP, organic and processing is the entry point for growing this small flower field into a future sourcing origin.
Sources
Nong nghiep Moi truong, "Doi doi tu nhung gian thien ly" (28 July 2026)
