An orchard that stopped pesticides 40 days before harvest: what did Japanese buyers go to see?

In the lychee region of Thanh Ha in Hai Phong City in northern Vietnam, producers have agreed to stop all chemical pesticides 40 days before harvest, the local agriculture specialty paper Nông nghiệp và Môi trường reported in its issue dated September 24, 2026. The first part of the same series (dated September 23) also carries a story in which lychee from a plot that yielded only about 1 tonne from 300 trees was bought at 400,000 dong per kg. Read from the side sourcing fruit and raw materials for Japan, these two pieces are not an explanation of residue standards but a record of 'who is standing in the field and when.'

A Hai Phong lychee region agreed that 'no pesticides for the 40 days before harvest'

It was decided not by the administration but by the Ha Dong production group

What the paper cites are the words of Le Thi An, acting group leader of the lychee production group of Ha Dong commune: 'We all agreed to stop all use of chemical pesticides from 40 days before harvest. Pests appear easily in this period, but to protect the name of Thanh Ha we chose the safe side.' The figure of 40 days is introduced not as a rule Hai Phong City imposed across the whole area but as an agreement of an export-oriented region's production group. Mistaking it turns into a claim that 'all Hai Phong lychee is pesticide-free from 40 days out.'

'Zero residue' is not the name of a standard but Hai Phong City's operating policy

Explaining the city side's framework is Luong Thi Kiem, deputy director of Hai Phong City's Department of Agriculture and Environment. According to the paper, the city flies the banner of 'Zero Residue,' centering on three points: allowing no banned ingredients at all, prioritizing biological pesticides, and strictly enforcing the pre-harvest cessation period. The deputy director states that they go as far as early forecasting of pests, early guidance, and on-site inspection of orchards and packing facilities. 'Zero residue' as the name of a policy and a test result that is truly zero down to the detection limit are two different things.

198 growing-area codes, 1,125 ha: how far does the numbered area go

Coded area against a 50,000-tonne region

The paper puts the projected output of 2026-crop Thanh Ha lychee at about 50,000 tonnes and writes that it goes to Japan, the US, Australia, the UK, France and others. And as the 'passport' for export, it records 198 growing-area and packing-facility codes, covering an area of 1,125 ha. Because the 50,000-tonne volume and the 1,125-ha area are different measures, avoid dividing them to produce a per-area yield. What can be used for export is fruit from coded plots, and what matters to a buyer is 'from which code's plot the lot coming to us came.'

China's revision of GB 2763 comes around to Japan-bound shipments too

The paper states that the EU, the US and Japan keep lowering MRLs (maximum residue limits), with many active ingredients squeezed down to the 0.01 mg/kg level or dropped from the roster, and reports that China too updated GB 2763, adding about 600 residue limits for more than 125 active ingredients. China is a market the paper describes as a traditional large-volume buyer, and when its standards move, the region's control calendar is rewritten. Even looking only at Japan-bound shipments, the combination of agents actually sprayed is pulled along by China's revision.

At what trading stage is the 400,000-dong-per-kg lychee priced?

A price attached to a small lot of 300 trees and about 1 tonne

The first part of the series tells of the plot of Pham Van Giang, who leads the No. 35 production group of Thanh Ha commune. The 300 trees he grafted with the trung hong (trứng hồng) variety onto u hong rootstock two years ago entered the fruiting stage, but 2026 was a poor year and the whole harvest stayed at about 1 tonne. It was taken by a buyer at 400,000 dong per kg, and the paper writes it was 'the highest-selling lychee lot to date.' At the exchange rate as of September 26, 2026, 1 yen = about 164.9 dong, 400,000 dong comes to about 2,425 yen/kg.

What goes wrong when you line up a region price and retail in the same table

This 400,000 dong is only written by the paper as 'a customer ordered and bought it,' with the trading stage not stated; it is neither a Japanese retail price nor an export FOB. Lining up a Japanese per-pack retail price here to produce a multiplier makes the costs of grading, pre-cooling, transport, quarantine treatment, customs clearance and domestic delivery all look like 'profit.' Even in the same region, general product stacked by the tens of kilograms in foam boxes and gift product packed nine fruits to a box differ in both trading stage and packaging cost. If you compare unit prices, you want to confirm with the counterpart whether it is orchard handover or packing-facility handover before putting it in a table.

What a Japanese buyer can verify on site when invited to the orchard

Technicians who stick close in harvest season, not 'resident'

The second part features two moves by export companies. Mai Xuan Tinh, president of Rong Do, says the company stopped buying up from several hundred households and leaned toward building production groups. In the paper's photo caption, it is said that this season the company took a Japanese trading partner to inspect Thanh Ha's production site. Ngo Thi Thu Hong, president of Ameii Vietnam, states, 'We don't just buy; we have technicians stick close in the orchards, guiding everything from fruit thinning and bagging to harvest.' The wording is not of being resident but of sending technicians in to stick close at the turning points of the work. What to look at in the orchard is not the technician's desk but the traces of people having entered during the thinning and bagging season.

For the electronic journal, who inputs it and when matters more than the format

The paper writes that community agricultural-extension groups (Tổ Khuyến nông cộng đồng) are placed in communes such as Thanh Ha, Ha Dong and Ha Thai, and that producers are guided in keeping an electronic journal. The format being in order and the person inputting it on the day of spraying are two different things. If you walk the orchard, the quick way is to have them show you on screen, for just one plot, how the interval between the last spraying date and the harvest date is recorded in the journal. A move to put cultivation ledgers in order on a deadline is advancing in coffee too, and the case in which Son La province zones 36,000 ha and creates ledgers lined up with it, makes clear that a ledger's completeness changes depending on 'whose record it is for.'

From 20–30 kg foam boxes to a nine-fruit gift box: how Japanese procurement changes

When the lot shrinks, the premise of unit-price negotiation changes

Mr. Giang from the first part says he stopped rushing to sell in 20–30 kg foam boxes and made a gift box lined with moisture-proof paper holding just nine trung hong fruits. That the high price came in a year when only 1 tonne could be harvested is not unrelated to this way of packing. From the Japanese side, a structure is forming in which bulk for raw material and small gift lots come from the same production group. If you want to secure volume, it is better to discuss an annual allocation before it is eaten up by the gift quota. Examples of Japan being put off in the order of allocation occur in other items too, and the coconut case where 5–10 containers a week were filled for Europe and the US is the closest.

A stage where a proposal to build a new irradiation facility has emerged

The paper writes that, in addition to his circular efforts, Mr. Giang has proposed to the administration that an irradiation facility be built in Hai Phong City to hold down transport costs. It is at the proposal stage, not a matter of groundbreaking or operation. If the place for quarantine treatment stays far from the region, that cost and time ultimately ride on the unit price. The point of looking at operating orchards and the flow of treatment rather than the area or the number of certificates the situation where macadamia has over 46,000 ha yet imports continue becomes the same way of reading.

If there is one thing to ask for first in next season's deal, it is the full set of records for the 40 days before harvest

Three things to have them produce first

If you move in the next planting, asking for paper is faster than a region visit. One: the growing-area code and packing-facility code numbers corresponding to the lot coming to you. Two: an excerpt of the electronic journal where the last spraying date and the harvest date for that plot can be seen side by side. Three: a single line stating which trading stage the quoted unit price is at. With a counterpart who produces these three, a region visit is just confirmation. If they don't, you will have to re-verify from whether the 40-day agreement even extends to that plot.

Cross-check the change of administrative names against the addressees on documents

The paper writes Thanh Ha as 'Thanh Ha commune (xã) of Hai Phong City' and gives its jurisdiction as the 'Hai Phong City Department of Agriculture and Environment.' Because the administrative name used when searching past materials by region name has changed, you want to check in advance that the addressees on contracts and quarantine-related documents are not left outdated.

Sources

• Tư duy mới cho vải Thanh Hà: [Bài 2] Không chạy theo sản lượng bằng mọi giá (Nông nghiệp và Môi trường, September 24, 2026)
• Tư duy mới cho vải Thanh Hà: [Bài 1] Không chỉ bán vải mà bán cả quy trình sản xuất (Nông nghiệp và Môi trường, September 23, 2026)
• Exchange Rate API (JPY-based rate, retrieved September 26, 2026)