Shocking: Lemon leaves in Vietnam are only eaten with boiled chicken, but in Europe they are sold for 6.3 million VND/kg.

Lemon leaves are very familiar to Vietnamese people, often used to sprinkle on boiled chicken as a spice. However, we Vietnamese often pay more attention to lemons than lemon leaves. Vietnamese farmers rarely consider lemon leaves as one of their sources of income. In many places, lemon leaves are sold at "cheap as free" prices in the market.

Lemon leaves are sold for nearly $7/1 oz on amazon.com.

However, lemon leaves are a spice leaf with quite high prices abroad. On the online shopping site Amazon.com, lemon leaves are sold for about 7 USD/1 oz, equivalent to 25g. Thus, 100g of lemon leaves costs about 28 USD (635,000 VND), 1kg will cost a "shocking" price of about 6.35 million VND.

Perhaps because of the large profits from this common leaf, several years ago, some companies collected dozens of tons of lemon leaves to export to the European market, earning millions of USD.

In many regions, lemon leaves, which were once only used as a spice for boiled chicken, are now popular and cost hundreds of thousands of VND/kg.

According to the leader of a company specializing in purchasing lemon leaves in the Southern region for export, lemon leaves are widely used in many other dishes in the West.

Lemongrass leaves exported to the European market come in two forms: the spice form is packaged together with galangal, chili and lemongrass, creating the complete flavor of Thai hot pot. Compared to Thai products, Vietnamese Thai hot pot spices are much more fragrant and flavorful. The regular form is just packaged lemongrass leaves in small bags and completely frozen.

Limes are native to Vietnam as shrubs, growing to about 5 metres high with many thorns. Dwarf varieties are more popular with gardeners and can be grown in greenhouses because they do not tolerate cold weather.

The stem is rarely erect, but branches out from near the base. The leaves are ovate, 2.5–9 cm (1–3.5 in) long, and resemble orange leaves (the scientific name aurantifolia refers to the resemblance of the leaves to orange leaves - C. aurantium).

The flowers are 2.5 cm (1 inch) in diameter, white to yellow, and have pale purple veins. The tree flowers and bears fruit year-round, but the heaviest fruit is produced from May to September. The fruit ripens 5 to 6 months after flowering.