Vietnam's 35 hectares of noni target South Korean and US exports with USDA organic certification

Trang Linh of Ho Chi Minh City is advancing a production base for organic noni (nhau in Vietnamese; scientific name Morinda citrifolia) on the volcanic-ash soil of the former Xuyen Moc district. On a combined 35 ha of its own 25 ha and 10 ha from partner farmers, it expects to obtain USDA (U.S. Department of Agriculture) organic certification in August 2026 and is preparing to export to South Korea and the United States. A local agricultural newspaper dated July 30 reported this as testimony from the company's CEO. For Japanese food manufacturers and raw-material sourcing officers, it is a story of a new supply source for a tropical fruit positioned as a functional ingredient beginning to emerge.

A noni plantation of 25 ha plus 10 ha in partnership on Xuyen Moc's basalt soil looks toward exporting

The area chosen as the production base is the former Xuyen Moc district (a southern coastal area now merged into Ho Chi Minh City). According to the company's CEO, Pham Truong Giang, the basalt-derived volcanic-ash soil is rich in minerals, is less prone to direct typhoon hits, and its siting — where salt-laden mist from the sea naturally replenishes the soil — suits noni cultivation. The main cultivation is on the company's own 25 ha farm, to which 10 ha from contract farmers is added. Harvesting begins about nine months after planting the seedlings, after which the fruit is picked at a pace of twice a month.

Noni fruit turns whitish when ripe and gives off a distinctive fermented smell. Since fresh fruit is hard to keep and transport, the company says it is developing seven product lines of juice, frozen fresh fruit, dried fruit, digestive enzymes, noni tea, powder and noni liquor. It is a design leaning toward processing rather than shipping the raw material as is, which overlaps with the trend of adding value spreading across Vietnamese agricultural products as a whole. In the fisheries field, the move by VASEP to shift its footing from raw-material export to processing — readers who have followed it should be able to read that the same thinking is spreading on the fruit side too.

Noni, a fruit long used in folk medicine — in Japan, an ingredient whose effects should not be asserted

Noni is an evergreen shrub of the Rubiaceae family, growing wild across the tropics and subtropics from Polynesia through Southeast Asia to Okinawa. Every part — root, leaf, fruit and more — has a history of being used in folk medicine in various places, and the fruit is reported to contain components not often found in ordinary fruit, such as scopoletin and iridoids. In Vietnam too, nhau has been a traditionally cherished ingredient.

However, if the Japanese market is the premise, careful line-drawing is needed here. National health-food information notes that no clear efficacy from taking noni has been confirmed, and cautions that there are also reports of health harm such as liver dysfunction. In other words, a sales approach that asserts it 'works on the body' carries high risk from the standpoint of the Act against Unjustifiable Premiums and Misleading Representations and the Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Act. If the procurement side is to handle it, the realistic order is to start from positioning it as a food and flavor ingredient that has been traditionally used, and to work out the scientific grounds and procedures separately when making a functional claim. Precisely because the ingredient itself has a story, getting the messaging wrong can conversely damage trust.

A profit structure built on a VND 7,000/kg purchase price and twice-monthly harvests, leaning toward processing to absorb price swings

The cultivation and profitability figures the company presents are as follows. All are single-source numbers based on the company CEO's testimony, with currency conversion noted at an approximate ¥1 ≈ 170 VND (not an assertion).

What is worth noting is that the purchase unit price for the fresh fruit itself is not high. The level of about ¥41 per kg is thin for turning a profit by putting fresh fruit as is into international distribution. That is exactly why the design leans toward processing with seven product lines. Converting to juice or powder raises shelf life and transportability, letting the product side absorb swings in the raw-material market. As with durian, where fresh fruit crashed but frozen processing pushed up unit prices, the more niche a medicinal fruit, the more 'in what form to ship it' governs profitability. What the Japanese side should look at is not the fresh-fruit per-kg price but the landed price and the stability of quality for processed goods such as powder and juice.

The largest consuming market is South Korea, followed by the United States — in Japan's functional-ingredient sourcing, it sits in a 'gap'

The company sees South Korea as the world's largest consuming market for noni and the United States as second, and is prioritizing exports to these two markets. In this structure, Japan is not the main battleground. While noni has a certain distribution as a health food in Japan too, the market size is limited and raw-material demand is not outstandingly large.

Conversely, this also means that for Japanese procurement it is a niche raw material not caught in a large-lot scramble. The market for foods with functional claims keeps expanding, and the share of functional-claim foods in supplement form within health foods overall has grown from about 18% in fiscal 2020 to about 33% in fiscal 2025. Major ingredients face fierce competition, but a traditional ingredient like noni leaves room to be worked into product development with a unique angle, or to be stocked as a blend ingredient with other materials. As the flow of medicinal and health ingredients toward South Korea can also be seen in the case of dressing up Ha Tinh's spiral shells in an herbal-medicine style to sell to South Korea, the fact that the Vietnamese side is honing ingredients around the South Korean market is something Japanese procurement officers will also want to keep in mind. Lots prepared to USDA organic for South Korea and the United States are easy to divert as is to Japan's organic and natural-food channels.

Within Vietnam, the production of medicinal and functional ingredients is emerging on multiple tracks, and Japanese procurement has entered a stage of discerning which items will grow in which processing form. Noni differs in character from herbal-medicine-type items in that the fruit itself is processed into a beverage or powder to be sold.

USDA organic is planned for August 2026 — three points the procurement side will want to confirm in advance

At present this production area is still in the midst of launching. The USDA organic certification is planned, not yet obtained, and the seven product lines are also at the development stage. If the Japanese side is to make contact, it will want to confirm the following.

• Effectiveness of the certification — the timing and scope of USDA organic. If organic labeling is to be used in Japan, the relationship with Organic JAS also needs separate sorting out.
• Supply form and minimum lot — whether juice, powder or dried rather than fresh fruit, and from what unit it can be supplied. Proof of quality specifications and residue standards for processed goods.
• Sorting out labeling risk — whether to make a functional appeal or to treat it as a food and flavor ingredient. The required supporting documents change with the appeal policy.

Noni is not a mass-procurement item for everyone. But the fact that a supply source equipped with organic certification and a processing setup is growing around South Korea and the United States makes it, for Japanese manufacturers wanting to assemble distinctive health and natural-food products, an option worth making early initial contact with.

Sources referenced

• Nong nghiep va Moi truong — Trai nhau huu co cho ngay xuat ngoai (Organic noni awaits the day it goes abroad)
• National Institutes of Biomedical Innovation, Health and Nutrition, 'Health Foods' safety and efficacy information — Noni