In Dong Thap Province in the Mekong Delta, a sealed, air-conditioned poultry house holds 60,000 birds. The three farms of Nguyen Duc Luu (known as Bay Luu, age 70) in Dao Thanh ward, reported by state broadcaster VOV on September 24, 2026, run a total area of over 5,000 square meters with a permanent crew of 8, reaching about 3 kg per bird in 45 days of rearing.
For Japanese food buyers and raw-material sourcing managers, the significance of this case is not a farmer's success story. VOV positions poultry farming—supported by houses that actively create temperature and by the exit provided by contracting companies—as spreading to many farmers in Dong Thap Province, with Luu as a representative example. However, the forms in which it can be brought into Japan are narrowed by law. Vietnamese poultry meat can pass only via a route through a heat-treatment facility designated by the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, and there are only three such facilities.
Dao Thanh ward's three farms: 60,000 birds in air-conditioned houses, reaching 3 kg in 45 days
According to VOV's coverage, Nguyen Duc Luu lives in Block 17 of Dao Thanh ward and continues to manage and operate three poultry farms. He has had no formal training in animal husbandry but says he has been interested in this work since childhood. In 2010 he left a land-transport job to switch to pig farming, and then, seeing potential in sealed poultry farming with biosecurity, took the plunge into investing in air-conditioned houses and contract rearing with a company. His current scale is three farms, a total area of over 5,000 square meters, and over 60,000 birds. Because the process is sealed and much of the work is automated, permanent employment stays at 8 people even at this scale. The floors of the houses are spread with rice husks, and the manure is collected, processed, and sold as fertilizer for crops. His awards include an excellence commendation for production and management from the Prime Minister in 2014 and a third-class Labor Order from the State President in 2025.
Care is needed with place names when opening a map. Until the 2025 reorganization, Dao Thanh ward was Dao Thanh village in My Tho city, former Tien Giang Province, and was merged with the city's Ward 4 and Ward 5 to become the current ward. By that year's resolution, former Tien Giang Province and former Dong Thap Province were also merged, creating a new Dong Thap Province. The same "Dong Thap" refers to an area distinct from the center of the former Dong Thap, known as a fruit region such as Cao Lanh.
The house's contents consist of three things: air conditioners, ventilation fans, and a deodorization system. The temperature, humidity, and environment inside the house are controlled to match each growth stage of the birds. Luu explains how it works: "Air-conditioned houses have many advantages over conventional ones. First, you can manipulate the temperature. If it is too hot, you cool it; if it is too cold, you warm it. Second, in an air-conditioned house the deodorization fans draw the smell upward and out, so there is no foul odor around the house. If you keep the birds cool, they eat well and grow fast."
What is shown as the result is the rearing period. In about 45 days each bird reaches around 3 kg and is shipped according to the contract. This speed also matches the testimony of fellow ward residents. Tran Cong Len of Dao Thanh ward says, "Others raise chickens for 4–5 months before selling, but Bay Luu ships in 45 days. Very efficient. I once bought his chickens and kept raising them, and some reached 8 kg." What Luu cites as the condition is not equipment but records and medication. He administers vaccinations rigorously and gives medicine at the correct dose to match the illness. At the same time he keeps records and tracks body weight, and after grasping the weight gain, he adjusts feed and medicine. He also uses digital technology for house management and rearing.
The contract with Japfa controls the breeding stock and the exit; shipment destinations are supermarkets and industrial-park canteens
What affects the sourcing side more than the rearing technology is the structure of the contract. Luu works with Japfa to raise a chicken called Coop 500, supplying table birds to supermarkets nationwide and to canteens within industrial parks. Under the contract, the company supplies the breeding stock, provides technical support, and buys up the entire output. The producer does not need to seek sales channels; it is a form in which the company controls quality and quantity. The contract partner, Japfa, originated in Indonesia, began its feed and poultry business in Vietnam in 1996, and lists its operating areas as five countries: Indonesia, Vietnam, Myanmar, India, and Bangladesh (the original text describes it as a "Malaysian company").
Luu describes his relationship with the contract partner this way: "I think this model is very efficient. Cooperating with a foreign company is also safe. You have to keep your credit in line with the contract with the company. You carry out exactly what is written in the contract." He also says that going forward he plans to find land zoned for livestock to add farms, and to help his children develop the model as an adviser.
Farm-gate VND 31,000–32,000 is about 189–195 yen per kg
We organize the price and profitability figures, limited to those that can be checked. Exchange is converted at about 164 VND = 1 yen (September 24, 2026). Luu says that depending on the period, it can sometimes sell higher than this.
| Item | Reported figures | Yen conversion (1 yen = about 164 VND) |
|---|---|---|
| Farm-gate price | VND 31,000–32,000/kg | About 189–195 yen/kg |
| Profit per kg | VND 5,000–8,000/kg | About 30–49 yen/kg |
| Shipping weight | About 3 kg/bird | — |
| Rearing period | About 45 days | — |
| Total number raised | Over 60,000 birds (three farms combined) | — |
| Total house area | Over 5,000 square meters | — |
| Permanent employment | 8 people | — |
The profit margin is given in the original as about 10%, but calculating from the per-kg unit price and profit range yields 15–26%, which is inconsistent. This table adopts only the per-kg figures.
189–195 yen per kg is the price at the point the live birds leave the house. It does not include the costs of slaughter, processing, freezing, transport, and quarantine response. It is not a figure to compare directly with Japanese retail prices but material for gauging the region's cost structure.
The original gives annual revenue as VND 20–25 billion (about 120–150 million yen), but a forward calculation of 60,000 birds x 3 kg x 5 lots a year comes to around VND 28 billion, which does not fit. Profitability is best confirmed not by the article's annual revenue but by shipment records and actual receipts.
Vietnamese chicken entering Japan is only what has passed through the three designated heat-treatment facilities
Luu's 60,000 birds are for the Vietnamese domestic market, and there is no talk of export. Even so, the reason this case is worth reading for Japanese sourcing managers is that it lets them measure how far the region's production base has come together. On that basis, the routes for bringing it into Japan are limited.
Under the animal-health conditions of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries' Animal Quarantine Service, Vietnam is permitted only in the "heat-treated poultry meat, etc." category (set May 16, 2018). Countries and regions that can ship non-heat-treated poultry meat to Japan include Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Brazil, and the US, but Vietnam is not on that list. To handle Vietnamese chicken in Japan, being a heat-treated product is the premise.
The plants that can perform that heat treatment are also on a designation system. Only the following three facilities appear on the Animal Quarantine Service's published list of Vietnamese heat-treatment facilities (updated July 7, 2025).
- KOYU & UNITEK CO., Ltd (Long Binh Industrial Park, Dong Nai Province)
- C.P. VIET NAM CORPORATION – FOOD PROCESSING PLANT HA NOI (Phu Nghia Industrial Park, Hanoi)
- CPV FOOD CO., LTD (Becamex Binh Phuoc Industrial Park, Chon Thanh ward / the location on the list is given as Dong Nai Province)
Two of the three facilities are C.P. affiliates. Of these, CPV FOOD C.P. Vietnam shipped Vietnam's first processed chicken to South Korea appears on the list under the same name as the integrated production base in Binh Phuoc. Prior reporting says the company has shipped chicken to eight markets including Japan, so this route works not only institutionally but in practice. However, even in the heat-treated category, imports may be suspended due to outbreaks of avian influenza. Before ordering, it is worth checking the country's status in the Animal Quarantine Service's import-export suspension information.
Hai Phong's 25,000 birds are native chickens on 2.5 cycles a year; Dong Thap runs on Coop 500
In July 2026, this site covered A sensor poultry house built on wetland by a veteran in the Ninh Giang area of Hai Phong city. Do Van Dang's house measures temperature and humidity with sensors, has ventilation fans that run automatically, and is operated remotely from a smartphone. He raises colored native chickens, with each rearing cycle about 4 months and about 2.5 cycles a year, at a scale of 25,000 birds. A partner company comes to the site by truck and takes the entire output.
Luu's house creates the room temperature itself with air conditioning. A configuration that evens out the environment through ventilation and one that reconstructs the air temperature through air conditioning require different equipment in the house. The nearly threefold gap in rearing period—45 days versus about 4 months—is not a difference in house type but in variety, the difference between the fast-growing Coop 500 and native chickens with a long rearing period. It directly affects order lead time, however.
In terms of regional provenance, the fruit side of the same Dong Thap Province is ahead. For mangoes within the province, 353 region codes are registered over 10,030.17 ha, and the code numbers and certification categories serve directly as the buyer's traceability documents. On the livestock side, it is the contracting company that holds that role, so the order of evaluation is by the company—which holds the breeding stock, the technology, and the buyout—rather than looking at a farm on its own. To measure a region's depth, the next thing to check is not the number of birds at one farm but how many farms are in the same contract network.
Sources
- VOV, "Mot nong dan tinh Dong Thap lam giau tu nuoi ga trong 'phong lanh'" (September 24, 2026)
- Kinh te nong thon (VOV reprint of the same article, September 24, 2026)
- Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Animal Quarantine Service, "Animal-health conditions for poultry meat, etc." (set May 16, 2018)
- Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Animal Quarantine Service, list of designated facilities for "Vietnam (heat-treated poultry meat, etc.)" (updated July 7, 2025)
- Japfa, "Regional Network" (operating in five countries)
- Japfa「Our History」
- Wikipedia, "Dao Thanh" (2025 province and ward reorganization)
- ExchangeRate-API (yen/dong rate on September 24, 2026)
