On the morning of July 25, 2026, in Krong Pac, Dak Lak province in Vietnam's Central Highlands, pre-harvest durian still hanging on the trees was put up for auction. Roughly 350 tonnes of Dona-variety fruit from 10 orchards across 14.36 ha went, after bidding by 10 companies, to a single firm at VND 68,000\/kg, a total of VND 23.8 billion (1 t\u1ef7 = 1 billion dong; at about VND 162 to \u00a51, roughly \u00a5147 million, as of July 2026). Local papers reported it as Vietnam's first attempt at an open orchard-by-orchard auction. What is interesting from the vantage of Japanese importing and processing is not the size of the amount but that price-setting in the field, until now known only to the parties involved, came out into the open for the first time with a date, a variety, and certification attached.<\/p>\n
It was hosted by the Krong Pac Commune People's Committee and held as part of the official program of the Dak Lak Durian Festival 2026. Up for sale were 14.36 ha of Dona-variety fruit brought together by 10 orchard owners, with an expected quantity of around 350 tonnes. The opening price of VND 55,000\/kg (about \u00a5340) was set on the basis of the asking price indicated by the orchard owners.<\/p>\n
Bidding went two rounds. In the first round, 8 companies offered VND 58,000-66,000\/kg and advanced to the second round, where Nguyen Thuan Agricultural Import-Export Co., Ltd. put down VND 68,000, edging out the remaining 9 of the 10 participating companies. The award was confirmed on the spot. The winning price exceeded the opening price by VND 13,000 per kg, or 23.6%. What was sold was not sorted fruit but the 350 tonnes themselves, still on the trees<\/strong> That was the deal.<\/p>\n Why this auction was arranged in July can be read from the 2026 crop. Heavy rain during flowering lowered the fruit-set rate, and more fruit failed to meet export standards in appearance. According to an orchard owner quoted by VietnamNet on July 7, some orchards had only around 50 out of every 100 fruits meeting the standard.<\/p>\n Buyer behavior had changed too. Middlemen who had put down deposits the previous year, then misjudged the market and taken losses, abandoned the practice of paying deposits in advance and shifted to setting prices only three days before harvest. In the same early July, middlemen's offers for the Dona variety were VND 35,000-40,000\/kg (about \u00a5216-247), down sharply from around VND 60,000 (about \u00a5370) a year earlier.<\/p>\n The later price-setting slips, the more the risk of market swings and appearance defects piles up on the orchard owner's side. The orchard auction is a mechanism that reverses that direction. It fixes unit price and quantity before harvest and makes the buyer take on the gamble of whether the yield comes out as predicted. In a growing area where breaking deposit agreements had become routine, this is also the significance of local government stepping in as organizer and having contracts concluded on the spot.<\/p>\n The auction price means nothing on its own. Its position becomes clear only when set alongside the market price for the same period and the selling price the winner aims for after sorting.<\/p>\nWhat happened in the summer when middlemen stopped setting prices until three days before harvest<\/h2>\n
How to read the figure of VND 68,000<\/h2>\n