Vietnam's multi-sector group Thaco to sell bananas to Fresh Del Monte under 10-year deal

Truong Hai Group (Thaco), a leading private conglomerate in Vietnam, will supply Fresh Del Monte, a leading global fruit and vegetable producer and distributor based in the U.S., with bananas under a 10-year contract, beginning with 71,500 tons this year.

Under a strategic partnership signed by the two sides last Thursday, Thaco and Fresh Del Monte will jointly develop 2,000 hectares of pineapple cultivation using the American firm’s varieties, technical standards, and branding, according to Thaco chairman Tran Ba Duong.

The Vietnamese group will support Fresh Del Monte with mechanization in farming and automation in packing, leveraging Thaco’s automated fresh banana packing facilities.

Implementation is scheduled to begin by August 2026, with the first factory expected to be handed over as early as June.

Duong emphasized that Fresh Del Monte, with 135 years of industry experience and annual revenue of $4.6 billion, sets exceptionally strict requirements for stable yields and consistent quality. Under the agreement, both parties will face financial penalties if they fail to meet 90% of committed volumes.

The chairman noted strong differences in agricultural approaches. Fresh Del Monte has accumulated decades of cultivation know-how, managing over 40,000 hectares of banana plantations worldwide.

Thaco, meanwhile, approaches farming with an industrial mindset focused on efficiency, quality control, and near-zero defect rates. “If even one product out of a million is defective, it affects everything,” Duong remarked. “This partnership brings together a newcomer in agriculture with a 135-year industry veteran.”

Duong informed that Fresh Del Monte has sought additional supply for Asian and other markets, while Vietnam offers a cost advantage compared to Latin America. Historically, Vietnam’s banana farming has been fragmented, with small-scale plantations vulnerable to disease and inconsistent yields - issues Thaco aims to overcome through large-scale industrial farming.

Since 2023, Fresh Del Monte executives have inspected Thaco’s operations, eventually concluding that the Vietnamese producer can meet its rigorous standards. After months of trial shipments with five containers per week, the global food giant confirmed Thaco’s product quality is competitive with long-established producers.

Duong stated that Thaco expects to supply Fresh Del Monte with at least 71,500 tons of banana by 2026, equivalent to 3,575 containers or an average of 12 containers per day. If quality remains stable, volumes could rise to 240,000 tons annually, requiring up to 4,000 hectares dedicated exclusively to the partner. The firm will focus on production, while Fresh Del Monte will manage branding and distribution.

The U.S. company is also exploring large-scale pineapple development in Vietnam, aiming for 2,000 hectares branded Fresh Del Monte with Thaco’s support.

Duong said he believes that Vietnam can become a major global fruit supplier if producers meet international standards. “We are strict because fresh products must have a guaranteed market. If small growers face oversupply, someone may step in to help. But for us, there is no rescue,” he stressed.

According to the chairman, Thaco plans to export 512,000 tons of bananas in 2026, or about 26,000 containers, with Fresh Del Monte accounting for roughly 15%. The company aims to expand its banana cultivation area to 20,000 hectares in the coming years, representing a significant share of global supply.

The group has already developed 5,800 hectares of banana farms and is on track to reach 16,000 hectares by 2026. By 2027, Thaco targets maintaining 20,000 hectares of banana and establishing 2,000 hectares of pineapple, despite the crops’ high technical requirements. It will continue to advance an integrated, circular agricultural model combining large-scale farming and livestock production, he added.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, Mohammed Abbas, executive vice president of Fresh Del Monte, affirmed the company’s strong confidence in its strategic partnership with Thaco, citing what the global fruit major has witnessed from chairman Duong and his team over the past several years.

According to Abbas, Fresh Del Monte is committed not only to upgrading farming practices in Vietnam but also to learning from Thaco’s new approach to agriculture via the lens of an engineer.

A core element of the partnership is the application of Thaco’s expertise in agricultural automation. Abbas described this as transformational for the global farming sector, noting that agriculture has historically not been engineered-led. He said he believes that Thaco will help Fresh Del Monte and the world’s agricultural companies by bringing mechanization and automation into the industry.

Fresh Del Monte, he noted, will contribute deep biological and technical knowledge about banana, pineapple, and other crops, in addition to future projects still under wraps. With its long-standing expertise, the company will support Thaco in areas such as crop science, cultivation, and pure agricultural operations, while leveraging its global marketing expertise and distribution network. Fresh Del Monte’s long-term vision positions Vietnam as a rising agricultural powerhouse.

Abbas said that what Thaco is doing will completely reshape the global agricultural landscape in the banana and pineapple industries. He described its work as groundbreaking, offering a new perspective on agriculture and organizing farming areas in a way he has never seen before. This is a highly technical, large-scale production model - not the smallholder farming model common in many parts of the world.

He stressed that small and fragmented farms cannot drive meaningful change. Industrial-scale farming is essential for delivering consistent, affordable food to global consumers, and for any partnership to succeed, the scale must be even larger in the future.

Thaco’s strengths such as abundant land, secure water resources, and favorable climatic regions enable this transformation, Abbas said, adding the progress it has achieved in just two to three years is equivalent to what Fresh Del Monte would have needed a century to accomplish.