Spontaneous for the dream of changing your life
The easiest to see is the northern area of Cai Lay district, Tien Giang province, where thousands of durian trees have been planted since they were first planted until many years ago, and have just produced fruit and reaped good fruit. Durian is grown close together, next to rice fields, interspersed with jackfruit and papaya,... like forests.
On both sides of the asphalt road in Phu Cuong commune (Cai Lay district, Tien Giang province), farmers are busy taking care of durian. After getting to know each other and talking confidently, an old farmer revealed many things to us about growing this type of tree.
He said that about 20 years ago, durian was widely grown in the south of the district. At that time, the variety that was widely grown was durian, which was poorly green, but the profit was quite low. In Ri6's turn, it was combined with Monthong durian cultivation, which was more difficult to grow but brought a positive effect.
"When you go to the National Highway, you can see that people build houses with wide doors and Thai roofs because of the durian, while people make a living in rice fields and fish ponds but cannot get by. Seeing how much we wanted it, we also issued it as a risk", said this old farmer.
So 3 years ago, this gardener decided to cut down more than 3,000m2 of jackfruit land to invest in about 60 durian trees. However, due to not having enough capital to invest in the fields, he decided to increase the increase as he grew. Not to mention that in this province, despite a lack of capital, people still fill fish ponds to grow durian. That is also the common situation of the majority of farmers when entering their own "spinning" of durian with the dream of changing their lives.
Some farmers admit that currently, for those who are new to growing durian in Cai Lay, there are cases where the land use purpose has not been changed, especially from rice land to perennial land. Although they know that this poses legal risks and risks affecting food security, many people still decide to trade off due to high economic profits.
Expanding durian forests
Currently, those considered "sure tycoons" in Tien Giang have begun to switch to leasing off-season durian land in some localities near the provincial border. A typical example is in Thap Muoi district (Dong Thap province). If previously, rice land was only rented for about 2.5 - 3.5 million VND/cong/year (1 cong = 1,000m2 - PV), now the rental price for growing durian is up to 7 million VND/cong/year.
The durian growing volcano continues to spread to Chau Thanh district (Dong Thap province) and many other localities. Although there are no complete statistics, in reality, we have recorded that durian trees have taken root in Cho Moi, Chau Phu, Tri Ton districts (An Giang province), Hon Dat (Kien Giang province) and some other localities in Hau Giang province, ...
In Can Tho City, Phong Dien District is considered a locality with a tradition of growing fruit trees, including durian. Up to now, the durian growing area has accounted for nearly half of the district's fruit growing area, with thousands of hectares and an output of tens of thousands of tons.
In conversations with farmers in Phong Dien district, we have heard them discuss work many times, as long as anyone still has land to grow, they should expand their durian cultivation to get rich.
In the stories, farmers in the Mekong Delta are passing on calculation problems to a gardener who grows an average of 20 durian trees, each tree costs about 5 million VND from planting to harvesting. In the first year, if all goes well, 450 fruits will be harvested, sold for about 90 - 100 million VND; the profit is much "more delicious" than growing rice.
Worrying figures
Preliminary statistics of Tien Giang province show that the durian growing area in this province currently fluctuates around 24,000 - 25,500 hectares, most concentrated in Cai Be, Cai Lay districts and Cai Lay town.
According to Decision No. 633 on approving the adjustment of the Agricultural, Forestry and Fishery Development Plan of Tien Giang province until 2020, with a vision to 2030, the durian growing area in this province is planned to be only about 12,000 hectares, with an output of about 276,000 tons.
Thus, in reality, the area of durian cultivation in Tien Giang has now doubled compared to the area planned by the province until 2030.
In Can Tho City, durian growing areas are developing strongly in Phong Dien and Thoi Lai districts and partly in Co Do and O Mon districts.
Can Tho Department of Agriculture and Environment informed that in the past 3 years, the durian growing area has increased nearly 3 times, from about 2,500 hectares (in 2022) to about 7,000 hectares.
According to the report of the agricultural sector of Dong Thap province, in 2025, the durian growing area of the whole province will be over 4,000 hectares, an increase of about 1,500 hectares compared to 2023. Mainly concentrated in Chau Thanh, Thap Muoi, Cao Lanh, Lai Vung, Thanh Binh, Lap Vo districts. According to the assessment, because durian is a new crop, the area mainly accounts for 80% of the conversion from rice-growing land.
In Hau Giang province, by the end of 2024, there were more than 2,900 hectares of durian, grown mainly in Chau Thanh A, Phung Hiep, Chau Thanh districts, Nga Bay city, with 2 popular durian varieties: Ri6 and Monthong.
