{"id":1512,"date":"2026-09-07T17:34:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T08:34:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vietnam-agri.com\/?post_type=industry_news&p=1512"},"modified":"2026-09-07T17:29:21","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T08:29:21","slug":"durian-switch-farmer","status":"publish","type":"industry_news","link":"https:\/\/vietnam-agri.com\/en\/industry_news\/durian-switch-farmer\/","title":{"rendered":"From coffee to durian: the choice of a farmer whose income grew sevenfold"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Dak Lak province in Vietnam's Central Highlands, coffee farmers are switching their fields to durian. What AFP reported at the end of August 2026 is the story of Pham Xuan Lan (56), of Ea Knuec village, who harvests 60 tonnes a year from about 400 durian trees and expects to take in US$76,000 this year (about \u00a511.4 million at \u00a5150 to US$1). Had he kept to coffee alone on the same land, income would have stayed at roughly US$10,000 (about \u00a51.5 million). The gap in the figures mirrors the weight of the switch. For Japanese produce buyers too, this move is not merely a tale of increased output in a distant country. China's enormous demand is rewriting the crop mix of growing areas, and that quality foundation could in time become the base for supply to Japan as well.<\/p>\n

Keeping only part of his coffee: how Lan came to earn US$76,000 a year from durian<\/h2>\n

Lan shifted his weight to durian some 20 years ago. At first he grew premium varieties while intercropping with coffee, and now the pillar of his income has completely changed over. His own words are frank: 'You can get by on coffee. But it's durian that makes you rich.' The money he earned took the form of cars, a home, and a villa.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, there are also farmers who chose the same path and turned back. Hung bet everything on durian five years ago, quitting coffee entirely, but returned to coffee within two years. It was because he could not maintain the required quality; 'I couldn't do it. I failed,' he recalls. What separated Lan's success from Hung's retreat was neither price nor area but a single point: whether the fruit comes out uniform. The story of the switch holds, behind the glamorous rise in income, a selection in which only those who can maintain quality remain.<\/p>\n

Behind the spreading switch, a market in which China pays US$7.5 billion a year for fresh durian<\/h2>\n

What is lifting this current is China's appetite. China's fresh-durian import value reached about US$7.5 billion in 2025, swelling roughly 12-fold from 2015. Vietnam formally entered the Chinese market under a 2022 export protocol, and the next year overtook Thailand by volume, seizing the top spot it had held for nearly 20 years. The Central Highlands is a major growing area producing about one-sixth of the world's coffee, but those fields are now being replaced by the king of fruits.<\/p>\n

The coffee market itself is also in a high range, so for farmers the switch is not a choice to flee because it is cheap. It is an aggressive decision to reach higher in pursuit of greater returns. That said, there is also a path of raising value without abandoning coffee. The move to sell coffee under one's own name in the United States is Y P\u1ed1t Ni\u00ea of the Ede People, Who Quit Being a Doctor, Sells Dak Lak Coffee to the US Under His Own Name<\/a> as depicted there, and growing areas hold two options side by side: switching crops and raising added value.<\/p>\n

The switch in figures: planting up fivefold, exports from US$180 million to US$4 billion<\/h2>\n

Lining up only the figures that could be verified makes the market's expansion clear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Indicator<\/th>\nFigure<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Vietnam's national durian planted area<\/td>\nAbout 5 times over the past 10 years, to 200,000 ha<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Vietnam's durian export value<\/td>\n2021: about US$180 million to 2026: about US$4 billion (government target)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
First-half 2026 export value<\/td>\nAbout US$1.1 billion (+32% year on year)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
China's fresh-durian import value (2025)<\/td>\nAbout US$7.5 billion (about 12 times 2015)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Lan's results<\/td>\nAbout 400 trees, 60 tonnes a year, projected US$76,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

It is rare for a crop to leap to 20 times its export value in five years. Frozen durian is growing fast too: Q1 2026 exports were about US$221.7 million, more than triple the same period a year earlier, with an average unit price of about US$4,302 per tonne, around 20% above fresh. Frozen, suited to long-distance transport and long-term storage, has become the key to opening distant markets outside China.<\/p>\n

Only farmers who make quality uniform remain: the wall of cadmium and growing-area codes<\/h2>\n

Behind the expansion, growing areas have already entered a phase of selection. China tightened quarantine from early 2025, strengthening inspection over detections of cadmium and the colorant (auramine O). As a result, fresh-durian exports to China in the first half of 2025 are reported to have fallen 45% from the previous year. The processing capacity of inspection labs has also failed to keep pace with demand.<\/p>\n

What matters here is building quality through fertilization design and growing-area codes. The picture in which farmers who make the grade of their fruit uniform gain an advantage in both price and continued dealings is 80% Grade A at 62,000 dong per kilo: a Dak Lak durian farmer evened out quality through fertilization<\/a> as seen there, and what Hung stumbled over was also this quality wall. China's tightening is at once a pressure that weeds out growing areas and a device that forces surviving farmers to achieve quality that passes even in a demanding market.<\/p>\n

Why the Japanese procurement side should read this now: the quality China has honed works for Japan too<\/h2>\n

This is the core for Japanese buyers. The cadmium management, growing-area codes, and cultivation records put in place for China become, as is, a quality foundation that can be repurposed for the demanding Japanese market. Much of the frozen durian on shelves in Japanese supermarkets and online shops is already Vietnamese, and import volume is trending up. The management system growing areas have built up to pass the giant checkpoint of China overlaps largely with the traceability that Japanese procurement managers require.<\/p>\n

The takeaways can be organized into three. First, rather than chasing spot price spikes, form relationships early with exporters and farms that hold growing-area codes and inspection systems. Second, make frozen, superior in keeping quality and stable supply even if the unit price is higher than fresh, the mainstay, and smooth out the risk of seasonal swings. Third, rather than leaning on durian alone, broaden your view to other high-value tropical fruits. An example of a high-priced fruit that sells out at the field is Son La's custard apples weigh 1.3 kg each, sell out at the field, and bring 1.5 billion dong in profit on 4 hectares<\/a> found there too, and growing areas' earning power is not limited to durian. Now, when quality has been lifted by Chinese demand, is a window in which the Japanese side can get in on favorable terms.<\/p>\n

The next risk that an overemphasis on planting creates: price crashes and the risk of leaning on China<\/h2>\n

A purely bullish read gets it wrong. Entering 2026, there were phases in the Mekong Delta where the farm price of the Ri6 variety fell to VND 20,000-25,000 per kg ahead of the harvest. The rapid expansion of planted area is inseparable from oversupply, and if it overlaps with tightened quarantine, prices collapse at a stroke. Of first-half 2026 exports, China still accounts for the bulk, and dependence on the single market is high.<\/p>\n

The en-masse switch from coffee to durian is also a move that bets a growing area's crop mix on a single demand destination. That is precisely why growing areas and exporters that win through the quality selection, diversify markets with frozen, and extend export destinations beyond China will show their strength in the next few years. For Japanese buyers to choose such diversification-minded partners is directly linked to their own interest in supply stability and price predictability.<\/p>\n

Summary<\/h2>\n

Lan's US$76,000 is a concrete result produced by the switch from coffee to durian. But beside it is Hung's retreat, and across growing areas as a whole the trials of oversupply and tightened quarantine are advancing. What Chinese demand lifted is not only area but the level of quality control, and that foundation works for the Japanese market too. Procurement that chooses partners along the three axes of quality, frozen, and market diversification, rather than riding the heat of the market, is the path to drawing the greatest value from Vietnamese fruit in this period of transition.<\/p>\n

Sources<\/h2>\n