Dong Thap Province in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam's largest fruit region, is further accelerating its effort to "standardize" the regions of its flagship fruits. According to a July 1, 2026 report by the local paper Nhan Dan, the province has over 2,700 cultivation-plot codes (ma so vung trong), nearly 1,200 registered cultivation areas, and more than 130 cooperatives linked with companies. Noteworthy is that one durian cooperative in the My Tho area has, at a small scale of 28 households and 25 ha, voluntarily begun cadmium countermeasures that have been a bottleneck for export. The management of region codes and residue standards is coming down to "gatherings of farmers," not to the command of the province or the state. For Japanese importers and processors handling Vietnamese fruit, it is a move in which the yardstick for choosing suppliers is changing.
The "standardization" news that Dong Thap set in motion
Dong Thap Province has a fruit-tree planted area of over 135,000 ha and annual output of about 2.5 million tonnes, making it the largest fruit region in Vietnam. According to Nhan Dan's reporting, of this, farmland certified under VietGAP, GlobalGAP, and food-safety standards is nearly 2,500 ha, and organic and organic-equivalent cultivation extends to 8,400 ha. Cultivation-plot codes, the foundation of export procedures, number over 2,700, and nearly 500 packing-facility codes are registered, of which 308 facilities are actually in operation.
Tran Quoc Toan, Deputy Director of the provincial Department of Agriculture and Environment, commented that they should advance the standardization of cultivation areas, quality control, improved conformity to international standards, and the expansion of export markets. The implication is that they have entered a stage of not merely piling up numbers but polishing each one into a "usable code."
Why farmer-level management now
In the background is the cadmium problem that has plagued Vietnam in durian exports. Cases of residual cadmium exceeding the standard in inspections on the Chinese side, the main export destination, came one after another, and the number of shipments held up at the region's customs stage increased. Vietnamese durian was at one point driven even to below-cost roadside selling, and the region exposed the instability of "low prices in a good harvest, high prices in a poor one."
In response, Dong Thap Province is moving to build "model raw-material zones" that keep cadmium in durian flesh below the 0.05 mg/kg export requirement. Concrete measures line up at the field level: switching to fertilizers with extremely low cadmium content, supplementing with microbial organic fertilizer, intercropping mint-family plants within the orchards, and using rice-husk-derived biochar and biological materials. The point is that it has come down to field work procedures, not commands.
The province has further set out a plan to newly grant cultivation-plot codes for about 159,779 ha from 2026 to 2030. The breakdown is 52,214 ha for paddy and glutinous rice, 89,737 ha for perennial crops (fruit trees and coconut), and 17,829 ha for field crops. The direction is to spread the net of region codes across an area, clearly drawing a line between fields that can export and those that cannot.
Dong Thap's fruit in data
| Item | Figure |
|---|---|
| Fruit-tree planted area | Over 135,000 ha |
| Annual production | About 2.5 million tonnes |
| Farmland certified under VietGAP, etc. | Nearly 2,500 ha |
| Organic and organic-equivalent area | 8,400ha |
| Cultivation-plot codes | Over 2,700 |
| Registered cultivation areas | Nearly 1,200 |
| Packing-facility codes (in operation) | Nearly 500 (of which 308 facilities) |
| Cooperatives linked with companies | Over 130 |
| Durian planted area and output | 32,100 ha / 556,916 tonnes |
The figures of over 30,000 ha and a 550,000-tonne scale for durian alone have a depth comparable to one major imported fruit item in Japan. The significance lies in the fact that this volume is beginning to fall in step with farmer-level residue management.
Reactions from the field and the administration
Nguyen Thanh Thao, who leads a durian cooperative in the My Tho area, says they aim to unify the production process to secure fruit free of cadmium contamination and meet export standards. It is a small gathering of 28 households and 25 ha, but the recognition that aligning cultivation procedures is the ticket to export is becoming shared on the ground.
According to Ngo Van Be Em, chairman of the My Loi A Agricultural Service Cooperative, the cooperative is run with about 300 people over 270 ha and ships 25–30 tonnes a month as mango, yam, durian, breadfruit, guava, and the like. With 26.5 ha of VietGAP certification at its core, it is advancing contract cultivation with companies, retailers, and supermarkets. A stance of bundling multiple fruits and crops—rather than a single item—to aim for stable supply can be seen.
Nguyen Van Muoi, Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Horticulture Association, called on the company side to invest in collection centers and refrigeration facilities and to offer preferential logistics costs. It is a point that the region's efforts alone are only half the story, and that standardization works only once buyers prepare storage and transport facilities.
Implications for Japanese importers and agricultural stakeholders
This move changes how the Japanese side extends credit when sourcing Vietnamese fruit. Until now there was a tendency to lump things under the region name "Dong Thap durian," but going forward, even within the same province, quality and customs risk will diverge greatly depending on whether a field holds a region code or whether a shipment is from a cooperative running cadmium countermeasures. In sourcing negotiations, the value of confirming not just the producer name or region brand but the cultivation-plot code number, the registered cultivation area, and the operating status of the packing-facility code is rising.
Cadmium in particular is an item that cannot be ignored even for Japan from the standpoint of the Food Sanitation Act. A cooperative running management below 0.05 mg/kg for China becomes, for Japanese buyers too, a counterpart to whom safety is easy to explain at the early stage of negotiations. The practical benefit of listing early on suppliers who can disclose region-code and residue-management information is not small.
In the same Mekong Delta, there are also cases where farmers lift the whole region by spreading their techniques rather than hoarding them. The "billionaire farmer club" built by durian farmers in Can Tho—a trend in which sharing cultivation know-how pushes up a region's quality, which also connects to Dong Thap's cooperative linkages.
Ripple effects on the market and supply chain
When region codes and residue management come down to the farmer level, the benefits are concentrated in fields that can export. Small farmers without codes become more likely to fall off the export route unless they team up with code-holding cooperatives or companies. As a result, consolidation into cooperatives and contract cultivation with companies will advance a step further. The current situation, with over 130 cooperatives tied to companies, is the opening phase of that.
The development of traceability points in the same direction. In Vietnam, the nationwide rollout of a system tracking from region to packing and export is advancing, A national system that tracks durian by QR and as efforts like this combine with region codes, field-level histories come to reach the buyer. For the Japanese side, there is the advantage that even if trouble occurs after shipment, the cause becomes easier to trace back and identify.
If supply is narrowed to fields that can export, the price floor also tends to rise. A phase of Vietnamese durian rebounding from the bottom has also been reported, How to read the sourcing of Vietnamese durian that rebounded from the bottom and together with this, it is worth reading ahead the supply-demand changes that standardization brings.
Points to check in practice
- Confirm the supplier's cultivation-plot code number and the operating status of the registered cultivation area and packing-facility code
- For durian, ask whether cadmium management (a guide of under 0.05 mg/kg in the flesh) is implemented and whether inspection records can be disclosed
- Rather than a single farmer, the route of the 130-plus cooperatives contracting with companies tends to be more advantageous for supply stability and history disclosure
- Cooperatives that bundle multiple items beyond mango and durian, such as breadfruit and guava, are worth considering as year-round trading partners
Summary
Dong Thap Province's standardization is shifting the axis of how fruit is sold and bought, from a region-name brand to "codes and residue management for each field." What Japanese importers and processors should do next is confirm the actual region codes and cadmium countermeasures of their trading partners and list early on the suppliers who can disclose them. Simply adding "code number" and "inspection records" to the checklist of sourcing negotiations can greatly reduce the risk of being held up at customs. Now, when Vietnam's largest fruit region has begun bringing management down to the farmer level, is a good opportunity to reselect suppliers.
