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PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to assess the impact level of six factors that condition participation in value chain of lychee growers in the Luc Ngan District of Bac Giang Province in Vietnam. This contributes to the literature on value chain development through the exploration of the case of an agriculturally based primary industry in the global south. Specifically, it analyzes the impacts of several factors on the participation of lychee fruit farmers in the attributed value chain of Bac Giang Province in the north of Vietnam to identify salient points of policy intervention.Design/methodology/approachData for this study were collected from a survey of 270 lychee farmers in three districts of Bac Giang Province. Six factors, including the trust level of the participants, partner capacity, geographical distance between participants, collaborative culture, participation strategy and existence of specific government policies, were analyzed through a Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin (KMO) test, Cronbach’s alpha and the exploratory factor analysis (EFA) method to evaluate the reliability of the factors and suitability of the model. A regression analysis was then used to evaluate the impact level of each element on the collaboration of farmers in the chain.FindingsThe results show that each of the six factors has significant impacts on farmer participation and the resulting chain thickness. Although the findings of this study are drawn from the case of lychee farmers in the north of Vietnam, they are argued to be transferable to other countries with rapidly growing middle-income economies.Research limitations/implicationsThe research conclusions are based on only the opinions of surveyed lychee growers in Luc Ngan District, Bac Giang Province. Similarly, this paper only explores six factors influencing participation in the value chain. Additional factors, including age, have not been used in this study and are suggested avenues for future research.Originality/valueThe paper suggests that policy makers on the local and regional levels in Vietnam reassess their focus and center these six factors as precursory conditions to improving local and regional economic development. Implications for other peripheral regions with agricultural production across the global south are also posited.