Fistful of dollars and rice for Vietnam farmers displaced for US$1.5 billion Trump golf club

Farmer Le Van Tam tends coffee plants at a coffee farm in Dak Lak province, Vietnam. (AP Photo/Hau Dinh)

HUNG YEN — Vietnamese farmer Nguyen Thi Huong has slept poorly since authorities told her to vacate her farm for a Trump family-backed golf resort, offering just US$3,200 and rice provisions in return.

The golf resort, for which construction is scheduled to begin next month, is offering thousands of villagers such compensation packages to leave the land that has provided their livelihood for years or decades, according to six people with direct knowledge and documents seen by Reuters.

The project is the first partnership for the family business of U.S. President Donald Trump in Vietnam, which fast-tracked approvals as it negotiated a crucial trade deal with Washington.

Developers are now cutting compensation forecasts from an initial estimate exceeding $500 million, said one person familiar with the plans who declined to elaborate on reasons for the reduction.

The 990-hectare site designated for the golf course currently supports fruit farms growing bananas, longan, and other crops. While some see opportunity, many farmers are elderly and fear they will struggle to find alternative livelihoods in Vietnam’s vibrant economy with its largely young demographic.

“The whole village is worried about this project because it will take our land and leave us jobless,” said 50-year-old Huong, who was told to leave her 200-square-meter (2152.78 square-feet) plot in Hung Yen province near capital Hanoi for less than the average pay for one year in Vietnam.

Vietnamese real estate company Kinhbac City and its partners will develop the luxury golf club after paying the Trump Organization $5 million for brand licensing rights, according to regulatory filings and a source familiar with the deal.

Trump’s family business will run the club once completed, but is not involved in the investment and in compensation to farmers.

Trump has said his assets in the businesses are held in a trust managed by his children, but disclosures in June showed income from those sources ultimately accrues to the president.

Vietnam’s agriculture ministry, Hung Yen authorities, the Trump Organization and Kinhbac City did not reply to questions on compensation rates.

Authorities will determine final compensation rates based on land size and location, with formal approval expected next month. Five farmers facing dispossessions said authorities flagged reimbursements worth between $12 and $30 per square meter of farmland.

They also offered additional payments for uprooted plants and provisions of rice for some months, roughly in line with one document seen by Reuters.

The person familiar with the compensation plan said the range was accurate, declining to be named because the information was not public.

A local official declined to talk about the compensation but said rates for farmland in the area have usually not exceeded $14 per square meter. They are often higher in other provinces.

In Communist-run Vietnam, farmland is managed by the state. Farmers are assigned small plots for long-term use but have little say when authorities decide to take the land back. Protests are common but usually fruitless.

Compensation is paid by the state but developers foot the bill.

Four of the farmers contacted by Reuters were not happy with the proposed rates because their small plots would produce low payments.

Thousands of villagers will be affected, according to a second document from local authorities seen by Reuters, which stated final payment decisions were expected next month.

Huong leases a larger plot from other villagers, but can claim land compensation only for the small one assigned to her and for the plants she grows. “What can someone like me do after that?”

Rice for land

Vietnam’s Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said farmers would be reimbursed fairly when he spoke in May at the groundbreaking ceremony for the golf project to an audience that included Trump’s son Eric, a senior vice president of the Trump Organization.

“We have no right to negotiate. That’s a shame,” said Do Dinh Huong, another farmer who was told his plot would be compensated at roughly $12 per square meter.

He said he would have accepted what he believed was a low rate if the land were to be used to build roads or other public infrastructure.

“But this is a business project. I don’t know how that would contribute to people’s life.”

Authorities have also offered rice as compensation, with provisions varying from two to twelve months, according to one of the documents seen by Reuters.

Nguyen Thi Chuc, a 54-year-old farmer who grows bananas in what will become the Trump golf club, was told by authorities she might receive roughly $30 per square meter for her 200-square-meter plot.

“I’m getting old and can’t do anything else other than working on the farm,” she said.

Conversely, lawyers and investors in the province said the golf club would create better jobs and enrich villagers.

Le Van Tu, a 65-year-old local who will be compensated for his small plot and owns an eatery in a village that the golf club will abut, said he will upgrade his diner into a restaurant to cater to wealthier clients.

Land prices in the village have risen fivefold since the project was announced in October, he said. He was also happy a nearby pig farm will be gone: “It won’t be stinky anymore.”

(Reporting by Francesco Guarascio and Khanh Vu; Editing by Saad Sayeed)