One agricultural cooperative in Hai Phong city in northern Vietnam has become a growing region that makes lotus bloom and ship in the period when flowers would normally fall, selling an out-of-season stem at about twice the in-season price. It earns VND 500–700 million (about JPY 2.95–4.1 million) a year from lotus alone. It is a case reported by the local paper Dan Viet in September 2026, and what is novel is neither the variety nor the area but the single point of "shifting when to put it out." For Japanese food buyers too, how to fill the off-season is a shared theme that shapes procurement cost and supply stability. Let us look at the ingenuity by which a small northern cooperative doubled its unit price from a procurement standpoint.
A Hai Phong cooperative shipped lotus "out of season"
The stage is Tau Lap in the An Duong district of Hai Phong city. It is a flower farm that the Hoa Anh Tu Agricultural Cooperative (Hop tac xa Nong nghiep Hoa Anh Tu) runs under the "Hoa May Xanh" brand. Total planting is about 18 hectares, of which lotus makes up more than 6 hectares. Do Van San, deputy chairman and farm owner, built a system that shifts the lotus flowering period—usually concentrated in summer—through cultivation management, shipping to match the demand period.
According to Dan Viet, in the busy season they harvest 3,000–4,000 stems a day. They grow about 20 varieties, centered on ornamental and processing-use types such as the Guanyin lotus, and send them mainly to the domestic market as cut flowers. Annual sales of lotus alone are VND 500–700 million, and total flower sales exceed VND 2 billion (about JPY 11.8 million).
Why off-season lotus sells for double
The crux is price. Lotus bloomed out of season trades at VND 4,000–5,000 a stem (about JPY 24–30), selling at about twice the in-season price. If you can have product ready in a period when supply thins, the same lotus fetches a jump in price. Rather than making the cultivation itself more advanced, the point that pushed up the unit price is designing the harvest timing to match the trough of demand.
Northern Vietnam has temperature gaps across four seasons, and lotus's natural flowering skews from early to mid summer. In periods when flower demand rises, such as before Lunar New Year, supply conversely tends to thin. Growing regions that can hold inventory to fill that gap are limited. The Hoa Anh Tu cooperative adjusted sowing timing and cultivation management to spread flowering and secured a position to be chosen in the demand period.
The Hoa Anh Tu cooperative in numbers
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Location | Tau Lap, An Duong district, Hai Phong city |
| Brand | Hoa May Xanh |
| Total planting area | About 18 ha (of which lotus more than 6 ha) |
| Lotus varieties | About 20, including the Guanyin lotus |
| Daily harvest volume | 3,000–4,000 stems |
| Off-season unit price | VND 4,000–5,000/stem (about JPY 24–30, about twice the in-season price) |
| Annual sales of lotus | VND 500–700 million (about JPY 2.95–4.1 million) |
| Total annual sales of flowers | Over VND 2 billion (about JPY 11.8 million) |
Three points this case shows
From the reported facts, three points relevant to procurement can be drawn out. The first is that even for the same crop, the economics change with "when to put it out." The move from the conventional model of selling out cheaply in season to a design that targets the demand period has taken on reality even for small-scale operations. The figure of a unit price about twice the in-season level plainly shows that effect.
The second is the effect of branding. A growing region that attaches a name and sells, like Hoa May Xanh, more easily holds the initiative in price negotiations the more it is named by brand. The third is the difficulty of off-season cultivation. Stably cutting several thousand stems a day requires labor and technique, and adjusting the flowering period also takes effort. Not everyone can obtain the same margin, and the cost-side backing cannot be read from the reporting. This point should be discounted.
What can Japanese procurement staff read from this?
This cooperative is a business that sells ornamental cut flowers domestically, not one that exports lotus to Japan. Even so, there is an implication worth taking home from a procurement standpoint. The crux is that "a growing region that can supply in the off-season is chosen even at a steep price." If Japanese buyers want to avoid stockouts throughout the year, it is worth securing not only the cheap in-season but growing regions strong in the off-season.
Vietnam has large differences in latitude, and harvest periods shift between the north and the south/Central Highlands. Seen from the Japanese side, even for the same item, combining growing regions can make the supply trough shallower. Rather than buying only the cheap in-season, how cheaply one can secure off-season lots becomes the lifeline for a food operator running a year-round menu. The case of the Hoa Anh Tu cooperative shows that this off-season premium can hold even for a small-scale growing region.
Lotus as an ingredient and the relationship to year-round supply
Lotus circulates as food not only as flowers but as tea made from lotus seeds, lotus leaves and lotus flowers. Vietnam is known as a lotus-tea growing region, and dried lotus seeds and lotus tea are handled in health-oriented sales floors in Japan too. Even with such processing raw materials, if the harvest of the raw material skews to a particular season, processing operations and inventory get swung around. If more growing regions can spread the timing of flowering and fruiting, year-round procurement of processing raw material also becomes easier to organize.
In our own (Agriture's) practice of handling dried-vegetable OEM in Kyoto too, when raw-material arrivals concentrate in one period it is hard to plan the drying line, and conversely when raw material runs out in the off-season the shelf goes empty. The value of a growing region that can secure raw material by shifting the timing is the same for flowers and for vegetables. Vietnam's high-value-added, small-scale model is continuous with the seasonal-variation challenge that Japan's processing sites face.
Key points of the high-value-added, small-scale model
| Focal point | The Hoa Anh Tu cooperative's approach | Implication for Japanese procurement |
|---|---|---|
| Period | Spread the flowering period and ship in the off-season | Secure off-season-strong growing regions on year-round contracts |
| Price | About twice the in-season unit price in the off-season | Do not choose a growing region on the cheap in-season price alone |
| Brand | Named purchases under the Hoa May Xanh brand | Guarantee quality with traceability and a brand |
| Scale | Lotus 6 ha, small-scale yet high-value-added | Put small-lot, high-quality growing regions among the options too |
Relatedly, in building a growing region's added value, the effort to purchase Da Lat artichokes to a part-by-part standard and Son La's custard apple that sells out at the field and the like show moves to raise the unit price by timing and quality advancing in various places. The consistent support from seedling through processing of Lao Cai's medicinal-plant ordinance is also connected in the idea of building value from the raw-material stage.
Summary: line up growing regions' harvest calendars by area
What Hai Phong's lotus teaches is the practical basic that pricing is not decided by the item alone but moves with "when to put it out." The next move Japan's food and procurement staff can take is to line up, for each main item, the harvest calendars of Vietnamese growing regions by area, and sort out the regions that overlap with their own off-season. Just adding one off-season lot slot to the in-season bulk buy visibly lowers the risk of year-round stockouts. Growing regions that win on timing even at small scale will increase as negotiating partners from here.
