Dropping acacia for lemongrass: 80 million dong in profit from 1 hectare in the Quang Ngai hills

On September 24, 2026, the daily Báo Nông nghiệp và Môi trường, affiliated with Vietnam's Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, reported on a crop conversion in Son Mai commune, Quang Ngai province. In the hamlet of Bieu Qua, a farmer who switched 1 ha planted with acacia (keo) to lemongrass (sả) earns, after deducting costs, a profit of 80 million dong a year(about 485,000 yen at 1 yen = 164.94 dong, as of September 26, 2026). What matters to Japanese ingredient buyers is less this figure than the village's stated reason for 'not expanding the area.'

One hectare of acacia became lemongrass, earning 80 million dong a year after costs

A grass cut twice a year versus a tree that takes four years for the same profit

The one who made the switch is Dinh Van Danh, the hamlet chief (trưởng thôn) of Bieu Qua—not the head of the commune. By his account, lemongrass can be harvested twice a year and yields a profit of 80 million dong per hectare a year after costs. 'With acacia it takes about four years to earn the same kind of profit. And acacia risks falling over or snapping in storms,' he told the paper.

The 80 million dong is written as profit after costs, not revenue. Reading it as revenue would overstate the region's capacity.

Twenty hectares in the hamlet; durian across the whole commune exceeds 12 ha

Lemongrass in Bieu Qua hamlet now covers about 20 ha, with some galangal (riềng) as well. Across the whole commune there are several tens of hectares of fruit trees, of which durian exceeds 12 ha. Vo Thanh Binh of Son Chau hamlet has more than 100 eight-year-old durian trees; this season's yield was close to 3 tonnes (gần 3 tấn) and the selling price was about 50,000 dong/kg (about 300 yen). The article does not give a combined figure.

Son Mai commune was formed in the 2025 administrative reorganization and lies in the area of the former Minh Long district. It covers 112.56 km² with a population of 9,892 (end of 2024). This is the story of one hamlet in a mountain commune of fewer than 20,000 people.

Not 'storm-resistant,' just less prone to flooding than the lowlands

What the original compares is lowland lemongrass

During the rainy season and storms, lowland lemongrass regions can see supply fall because of flooding. Son Mai's hillside planting, by contrast, is less affected, so there are periods when its selling price runs higher—that is how the article puts it. It does not say that lemongrass as a crop is strong against wind. What is flagged as at risk of falling and snapping is the acacia.

This distinction matters in practice. If it were wind resistance, it would be a question of variety selection; but as a question of altitude and drainage, it becomes one of specifying the field's location in the contract.

Where a region whose prices rise in the rainy season matters for sourcing

Lowland-origin fresh and dried herbs tend to swing toward lower output and higher prices from September to December. Hillside regions move to the price-rising side in the same period. Contracting at a single year-round price gives the seller an incentive to deprioritize rainy-season shipments. Decide up front whether to split the quoted price by season or to secure the rainy-season portion under a separate allocation.

At what stage is the 80 million dong? Figures you may line up and figures you must not

Don't build a multiplier from profit and per-kilo price

The 80 million dong is annual after-cost profit per hectare; the 50,000 dong/kg is durian's selling unit price. Because the article does not state the trading stage of the latter, we read it only as a price sold from the orchard. Dividing two measures of different kinds to produce a multiplier misreads what the region actually is.

An example that can be lined up on the same profit-per-hectare basis

The same paper's December 7, 2025 article gives figures from Vo Ke Hung, a resident of Cat Tien village in Gia Lai province who grows the new peanut variety LDH.09: a dried yield of 3.5–4 tonnes/ha and a profit of 70–90 million dong/ha. Since the measures are the same, Son Mai's lemongrass stands alongside this level. In that article, Ho Huy Cuong, director of the Agricultural Science and Technology Institute for the Southern Central Coast (ASISOV), explains that the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment rates the central region as the most active area for crop conversion in the country.

The commune decided not to expand the area because the sales outlet hits a wall first

It grows well near the reservoir, but the scale is kept to maintenance only

Nguyen Anh Tuan, chairman of the Son Mai commune people's committee, acknowledges that the new crops are more efficient than traditional ones, but says conversion is premised on soil conditions, crop suitability and the sales market. On lemongrass, he states that although conditions near the Bieu Qua reservoir are good and growth is strong, expanding greatly would create an outlet problem (đầu ra, sales channel), so the policy is to keep it to an appropriate scale. As for durian, the commune does not encourage expanding the area in zones where conditions do not fit.

The reading that mountain regions are simply growing stops here for a moment. The commune places a ceiling on itself not because it cannot grow more, but because there are no buyers.

The sequence that is moving with pineapple

Going forward, the commune is considering linking lemongrass (written distinctly as sả chanh in the article) to essential-oil extraction, moving away from selling it as raw material. Another crop is pineapple (dứa): Công ty cổ phần Chế biến nông sản Sao Mai surveyed the area and judged part of it suitable. The company plans a partnership with a purchase guarantee (bao tiêu), and the commune is calling on residents to register area. The plan is to finish the call by the end of September 2026, firm up the partnership proposal and begin in October—the article goes only this far, not to a signed contract or completed planting.

When a Japanese buyer enters a 20-ha region, what you put forward first is not price

What determines the area is the purchase commitment

What the Sao Mai case shows is the order in which crops get decided in a mountain village. A company surveys the area, offers a purchase guarantee, the commune calls on residents to register area, and planting is decided there. Pinning down the price comes last. Only a counterpart who can put quantity and term in writing up front can board this sequence. With the approach of going to buy at harvest time, a 20-ha-class region is already filled by prior commitments. The case in Lao Cai province that distributed 2,300 seedlings to four households and started from 2 ha likewise had a structure in which the sales outlet is asked about first (Will Lao Cai's 2 ha of Thai-type custard apple sell）。

Specifications you can only lock in before the essential-oil equipment arrives

For a side that wants to buy dried leaf or cut product, it is easier to lock in specifications before the essential-oil equipment enters the village. Dryness, the stem-to-leaf ratio, cut length, pesticide residue and cultivation records—these often do not match the harvesting design meant for essential oil. Once the equipment runs, essential oil takes priority and raw-material sales become the remainder. The difficulty of entering later a region whose allocation has already been filled also arises in the coconut example, where 5–10 containers a week are taken up for Europe and the US (Coconut: 5–10 containers a week for Europe and the US only）。

To make it in time for the October planting decision, what to send during September

Six items to confirm in the first inquiry

Don't lump durian into the same story

Son Mai's durian is at the stage of over 12 ha, eight-year-old trees and 3 tonnes this season—not something to build export lots from. The commune itself does not encourage expansion onto unsuitable land. Seen together with the case in Gia Lai province where over 10 ha of durian withered and farmers returned to coffee without the cause being identified, mountain conversion runs in reverse the moment it misses the right land (Over 10 hectares of durian wither in Gia Lai; with the cause unidentified, farmers turn to coffee）。

The next action can be narrowed to one: put the annual required volume of dried lemongrass leaf, the specifications and the purchase period on a single sheet, and get it to the Son Mai commune people's committee and the provincial agriculture department during September. If the quantity is in before the October planting decision is fixed, you can negotiate to turn part of the 20 ha over to Japan-bound specifications. If it isn't, the next chance to move is the cut six months later.

Sources

• Chuyển đổi cây trồng, nâng giá trị vùng đất đồi (Báo Nông nghiệp và Môi trường, September 24, 2026)
• Duyên hải Nam Trung Bộ – vùng chuyển đổi cây trồng sôi động nhất nước (same paper, December 7, 2025)
• Sơn Mai (administrative-division material, citing Ministry of Home Affairs document 2896/BNV-CQĐP dated May 27, 2025)
• Yen–dong exchange rate (as of September 26, 2026, 1 yen = 164.94 dong)