Central Highlands

In Ea Rieng commune, Dak Lak province, a cassava hillside is converted to passion fruit. Against an initial investment of 200-250 trieu dong per hectare, the selling price is 10,000-20,000 dong/kg. The cumulative volume needed to recoup it differs twofold depending on the unit price.

At the 3rd World Robusta competition, Vietnam held 9 of the 10 international slots in the Top 20 finals. The unit price of Vietnamese green beans bought by Japan has risen 3.86-fold, from 143 yen/kg in 2010 to 552 yen/kg in 2024.

The Central Youth Union's Rural Youth Startup Contest 2026 held its national finals in Dak Lak province on September 18. Of 315 entries, 29 advanced. We read the next generation taking on agri-processing and digital agriculture from a Japanese sourcing perspective.

A nursery operator in Gia Lai province that ships 21 million forestry seedlings a year has been named an outstanding farmer. We lay out what is happening upstream of the acacia and eucalyptus wood chips that Japan imports.

The Dak Lak cooperative Tan Lap Dong is standardizing export-grade durian across 40 households and 50 hectares under four growing-area codes and moving into orchard tourism. We lay out the points Japanese importers will want to check when choosing a growing area.

In Cat Tien 2 commune (Xa Cat Tien 2), Lam Dong province, the cacao-manufacturing company Ban Ca cao, run by two women born in 1993, has, after exporting to South Korea, begun the procedures to export to Japan. A small OCOP three-star maker that finishes chocolate bars and pure cacao powder in-house, with 2.5 tonnes a week...

Even as farm-gate durian prices fall, Le Van Tuong of the Tan Son area, Krong Ana district, Dak Lak province, sold out his 1-hectare plot at 62,000 dong per kilo (about 350 yen at roughly 175 VND to 1 yen). His Grade A rate was over 80%. Having chosen buyers by even quality rather than price, in sourcing to Japan the "standard...

In the Buon Ma Thuot area, the center of Dak Lak province in Vietnam's Central Highlands, the Dak Lak Durian Festival opened on August 15, 2026. The aim of the event is to promote the regional brand and expand export markets, but what Japanese food buyers should read is not the festival's glamour. What Dak Lak holds as a province...

Cacao beans, the raw material for chocolate, come about 70% of world supply from just two countries, Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana. With those two major producing regions cutting output due to erratic weather and disease, international cacao prices have stayed stuck in a historically high range. At a moment when procurement managers are unanimous in saying they "want to diversify growing regions,"...

Sturgeon raised in the Krong No River in Lam Dong province. We interpret, from a Japanese sourcing perspective, how this cold-water-fish producing area—which grew about 57-fold from 2007 to 2023 to become sixth in the world—makes money, and the real picture of a kind of farming that protects the forest and water sources.