Areca over rice: a 5-ha Can Tho orchard reflects the gamble of relying on China
A farmer in Can Tho city in the Mekong Delta chose to tear out paddy fields and fruit trees and plant only areca (betel nut, cau in Vietnamese), and in 2025 made a profit of more than one billion dong (about 6 million yen, at roughly 60 yen to 10,000 dong) from the sale of fresh fruit alone. The Vietnamese paper Thanh Nien, on July 3, 2026...
