In Vinh Thanh Trung, An Giang province in southern Vietnam, a farmer who quit rice farming and switched to Thai-variety jackfruit (mit) is earning a take-home that exceeds year-round rice farming. The field of Phan Trung Tin, reported by the local paper Dan Viet (August 14, 2026), has 400 trees on 3.5 cong (about 0.35 hectares). The net profit from his most recent harvest was 45 to 50 million dong (about 260,000 to 290,000 yen), and the farm-gate price was 20,000 to 22,000 dong per kg (about 110 to 125 yen).
In the Japanese market, mit moves as a raw material for frozen flesh, dried goods, and puree. If who harvests, over what area, and when breaks down, the sourcing plan wavers. The "rice-to-mit" switch underway in one An Giang hamlet is itself a redrawing of the supply map. From the procurement side's viewpoint, this article breaks down the substance and the limits of this small shift.
In a hamlet with 442.6 ha of fruit trees, mit has spread to about 334 ha
It is not that mit took over in Tin's hamlet alone. The fruit-tree area across the Vinh Thanh Trung area reaches 442.6 hectares, of which roughly 334 hectares are mit. That works out to more than 70% of the fruit-tree belt leaning on a single crop—and its lead role is not a native variety but Thai-variety mit. The regional average yield is put at about 25 tonnes per hectare.
An Giang is a rice bowl of the Mekong Delta, a land where double- and triple-cropped paddies have spread. That a corner of these paddies has swung this far to fruit trees is because, on top of the water supply and soil being able to withstand fruit trees, the per-unit return on rice has hit a ceiling. In the same An Giang province, with reduced chemical fertilizer, a move to grow profit with organic rice is also underway, and the paths are dividing between farmers who stay with rice and farmers who break out into fruit trees.
45 to 50 million dong net profit on 3.5 cong and 400 trees; Tin says "better than year-round rice"
Tin speaks modestly of his own scale. Summarizing his remarks in the original, the gist is: "At about 3.5 cong and 400 trees, the income is 'so-so.' People with large areas can make more profit. The price of mit rises and falls with the season, but the take-home is better than year-round rice farming on the same area." What matters here is that he compares the difference with rice not as a multiple of the amount but on a "same area, year-round" basis.
| Item | Figure (original) | Approximate yen conversion |
|---|---|---|
| Planted area | 3.5 cong, 400 trees (about 0.35 ha) | — |
| Net profit from the most recent harvest | 45 to 50 million dong | about 260,000 to 290,000 yen |
| Farm-gate price | 20,000 to 22,000 dong/kg | about 110 to 125 yen/kg |
| Regional average yield | about 25 tonnes/ha | — |
| Hamlet's fruit-tree area | 442.6 ha (of which about 334 ha is mit) | — |
A take-home of 45 to 50 million dong on 0.35 hectares reaches a level close to the gross profit from rice on one hectare of Mekong paddy, on less than a fifth of the area. The groundwork for the decision to abandon rice and bet on fruit trees lies here. Reaching an annual income three to five times that of rice farming, the case of converting Hue paddies to lotus—the direction is the same, and the flow of swinging low-return paddies to high-value crops runs from the north-central region to the south.
The key is off-season timing ("nghich vu"). But the original does not reveal the substance of the method
Dan Viet's headline claims that "using just one trick sells it high" and indicates that the trick is the processing technique of "trai nghich vu" (off-season, counter-seasonal fruiting). If you shift the season and harvest in the lean period, you can ride the high prices of a time when supply is thin—behind the price holding at 20,000 to 22,000 dong is this control of shipping timing.
However, the article does not go as far as the specific processing method of "how to shift the season" (procedures such as pruning, water cutoff, and fruit-set adjustment). Filling this in with guesswork would make for mistaken technical guidance, so we stay with confirmable facts. That off-season shipping is widely practiced in Mekong fruit trees is common knowledge in the industry, but which procedure Tin used is not in the primary source. If the procurement side evaluates this growing region, the point to be verified becomes "in which months, and how much volume, can be shipped stably by off-season timing"—backed up not by the farmer but by the shipping records of the collector.
A proposal for "30 ha of Japanese-variety papaya" on the same fields; the growing region moves toward organization
Into this hamlet, Dung Loan Green Agri has brought a plan to introduce 30 hectares of Japanese-variety papaya (du du Nhat) intercropped with mit. It offers a purchase price of 4,000 dong per kg (about 23 yen), and the target is said to be the US and EU markets. The unit price is lower than mit's, but the design is to earn turnover through contract purchase and raise land utilization by using the spaces between trees. From reliance on individual farmers' off-season timing to company-led contracts and intercropping, the growing region is taking a step toward organization.
For the procurement side, this move of "a company entering and aligning area and specifications" is a signal. When grade-based purchasing comes in, shipments are standardized and the predictability of volume and quality rises. In Lam Dong province, the case of switching aged dragon-fruit fields to grade-based purchased passion fruit—as with this, the more a growing region has contracts and grade design in place, the easier it is for a remote buyer to read.
For Japan, mit sourcing enters through frozen and processed forms; fresh whole fruit faces the walls of quarantine and freshness
If Japanese food manufacturers are to have a point of contact with An Giang mit, it is first as a raw material for frozen flesh, dried goods, and puree. Mit's fresh fruit is large and has a short shelf life, and exporting it fresh to Japan carries high hurdles of quarantine and freshness management. On the other hand, frozen goods given primary processing locally or in a neighboring country can be handled year-round as material for confectionery, ice cream, and plant-based foods. From the standpoint of handling contract drying and powdering as well, a strongly seasonal tropical fruit is a raw material that "only gets onto the sourcing plan once it is processed." Mit in particular—because its aroma and fibrous texture suddenly stand out as after-ripening advances—has its quality governed by time management from harvest to primary processing. Whether the distance from the growing region to the processing plant and a cold chain can be secured is something to confirm even more than price.
What to look at in An Giang's shift is not the height of the unit price but the design of supply. Whether it is a growing region that can fill the lean period with off-season timing, and whether grade and volume are fixed by company contract—if these two points are in place, the Japanese side can more easily build an annual volume of frozen raw material. Conversely, as long as it is left to each farmer's take on market prices, sourcing will not move beyond spot purchases of physical goods.
If you follow this growing region, look at the shipping calendar and whether contracts exist
What Tin's 0.35 hectares showed is the on-the-ground fact that if Mekong paddies swing to mit, a take-home exceeding rice comes out on the same area. But what bears on a procurement decision is not his single net profit of 45 to 50 million dong but when and how much the hamlet's 334 hectares can ship by off-season timing, and whether a contracting entity like Dung Loan Green Agri can bundle grade and volume. The next move is clear. If you are considering An Giang mit as frozen raw material, query collectors for monthly shipping records and specifications, and follow for one season whether contract deals like the Japanese-variety papaya intercropping actually get going. Now, before the growing region organizes, is a phase where the conditions on volume and price are easier to grasp.
