{"id":1344,"date":"2026-07-15T13:34:20","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T04:34:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vietnam-agri.com\/industry_news\/vietnam-durian-farmer\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T13:34:20","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T04:34:20","slug":"vietnam-durian-farmer","status":"publish","type":"industry_news","link":"https:\/\/vietnam-agri.com\/en\/industry_news\/vietnam-durian-farmer\/","title":{"rendered":"Vietnamese durian farmers who earn tree by tree: Japan's procurement map changes"},"content":{"rendered":"

When discussing the supply of Vietnamese durian, Japanese buyers tend to view growing regions at the level of provinces or export companies. But what actually determines quality is the producer's technical level, how each individual tree in the orchard is managed. The case of a 62-year-old farmer who moved from Hung Yen province to the Central Highlands and, after struggling for nine years with coffee, came to earn more than 4 billion dong a year (about 24 million yen) from durian shows that this level is now rising rapidly at the individual level. It is a change Japanese procurement managers cannot overlook as they reassess the capabilities of Vietnamese growing regions.<\/p>\n

Nine years with coffee, then the switch to durian began<\/h2>\n

The protagonist is Nguyen Van Thanh (62). In 1994, he moved from his home province of Hung Yen to the Dak Mar area of the Central Highlands (formerly Kon Tum province, now Quang Ngai province after provincial reorganization) with little capital and only his personal tools. The first crop he chose was coffee. But after about nine years of growing it, yields stagnated and he was tossed around by price swings. In searching for a crop suited to the elevation and soil, he arrived at durian, and now grows two main varieties, Ri6 and Monthong, on an orchard of more than 13 hectares. Both are standard varieties that suit the local climate and soil, with stable yields and high fruit quality.<\/p>\n

Two irrigation units per tree, running the orchard on an \"electronic chart\"<\/h2>\n

What supports Thanh's earnings is not scale but the fineness of management. Each tree in the orchard is managed by number, and nutrients are dissolved in water and delivered directly to each tree via the irrigation system. Two automatic irrigation units are installed per tree, handling watering and fertilizing through the same piping. Growth conditions are entered into a smartphone record system, keeping a history for each tree. Rather than intuition-based farming reliant on manual labor, it is close to the idea of \"single-tree management,\" tracking individual differences in numbers. The strength of this orchard lies in treating each tree as an independent production unit rather than handling a vast area uniformly.<\/p>\n

The turnaround in numbers<\/h2>\n

The results for the 2025 crop plainly show the fruits of this management method. Exchange is converted at 10,000 dong = approx. 60 yen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Item<\/th>\nFigure<\/th>\nApproximate yen conversion<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Orchard area<\/td>\nMore than 13 hectares<\/td>\n\u2014<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2025 crop yield<\/td>\nOver 100 tonnes<\/td>\n\u2014<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Average selling price<\/td>\n50,000 dong\/kg<\/td>\nAbout 300 yen\/kg<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Annual profit (after expenses)<\/td>\nMore than 4 billion dong\/year<\/td>\nAbout 24 million yen\/year<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Selling 100 tonnes at a unit price of 50,000 dong gives revenue on the order of 5 billion dong, and after expenses the remainder works out to more than 4 billion dong. Durian is a crop with large price swings, but if quality is made uniform through per-tree management and a high proportion of top grades is maintained, profit is easier to secure even when prices fall. Technology works as a cushion against price volatility.<\/p>\n

What changes for Japan's procurement<\/h2>\n

What this case puts before Japanese buyers is the fact that the \"granularity\" of Vietnamese growing regions has changed. Traditionally, Vietnamese durian has been evaluated as a fresh commodity by a region's average quality and volume. But once individual farmers enter a stage of building quality tree by tree and keeping digital records, quality differences and reproducibility by lot, even within the same region, become the axis of procurement decisions. Having followed standardization at the growing-area-code level, the blueprint for the long-term exports that Vietnamese durian is taking on<\/a> and the producer-level sophistication seen at this orchard converge, from top and bottom, toward the same \"traceable procurement with readable quality.\"<\/p>\n

In fact, Vietnam is advancing the creation of a nationwide system to track durian by QR code, and the shift of origin verification from paper to electronic<\/a> will also change how acceptance inspection is done on the Japanese side. Once orchard identification numbers and per-tree records are in place, Japanese buyers will be able to confirm before purchase \"from which field and under what management the fruit comes.\" In addition to competing on price in fresh product, there is growing room to name-buy such highly capable producers through long-term contracts that include processing and freezing.<\/p>\n

When individual technique becomes a region's capability<\/h2>\n

In Vietnam's Central Highlands, movements to share technique rather than keep it closed off are also emerging, such as durian farmers' \"billionaire farmers' club\"<\/a> in various places. If individual management know-how like Thanh's spreads horizontally, it will raise the level of the whole region and, for Japan, underpin stable procurement. Conversely, assessing Vietnamese regions on average quality alone risks missing out on these more sophisticated producers.<\/p>\n

The move Japanese food buyers and import managers can make now is clear: add one more yardstick to their evaluation of Vietnamese durian regions, the \"management level at the orchard unit,\" not just the province or export company. At this stage, as the traceability system falls into place, the companies that build relationships early with producers who craft quality tree by tree will stand at an advantage in the next supply crunch or price spike. The 62-year-old's turnaround is both a heartening story and a practical signal that the procurement map of Vietnamese growing regions is being redrawn.<\/p>\n

Sources<\/h2>\n