Research
Research
We publish a page only when two things are true: people are looking for the answer, and Vietnam is genuinely central to it. This is the research behind those decisions.
The latest research pass
Our most recent pass, RUN-vno-2026-10-07-1, was completed on 7 October 2026. It looked at English-language searches in the United States, with the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada measured separately, across six candidate products: cinnamon, star anise, cashew, black pepper, rice and cacao. Coffee was excluded on purpose; it belongs to our specialist site.
The pass grouped related searches into 68 topics, read the live Google results for each, and ran a separate review pass that challenged every score. 41 topics passed. Seven were judged worth building first.
What made a topic worth building
- Vietnam is central to the true answer. “Where does star anise come from” is answered by southern China and northern Vietnam; “jasmine rice” mostly is not.
- The current results are weak. Forums, thin exporter pages and shopping results leave room for a sourced reference page.
- The answer needs structure. A comparison table, a harvest calendar or a map adds something a short search summary cannot.
High search volume alone was never enough. The biggest searches — “star anise”, “jasmine rice”, “ceylon cinnamon” — are shopping results or belong to other origins, and were set aside.
What the pass set aside
- Cacao. Most cacao questions do not have a Vietnamese answer, and only one cacao topic passed. Cacao will be re-researched against tea and coconut before any build-out.
- Supplier and exporter directories. Real questions, but very low measured volume and a maintenance burden. They wait until the reference content has earned trust.
- Health questions. Many searches about these spices ask about health. We answer composition with sources and leave medical advice to medical publishers.
Researching now
- Black pepper: Primary export and production data; Growing regions; Processing of black and white pepper.
- Rice: Fragrant varieties and their breeders (ST24, ST25); Growing regions; Export data.
What we do not publish from research
Our raw research — keyword lists, search volumes, result-page snapshots — stays internal. It tells us what to write, not what is true about a product, so none of it is cited as evidence on a product page.