Concerns from the grassroots

For the mountainous district of Con Cuong, the report on the current status of forestry development at the end of 2023 showed that the current area of ​​​​planted raw materials forests in the whole district is 11,768.27 hectares. Of which, the area of ​​​​planted forests is 5,655.01 hectares, and the area of ​​​​not yet formed forests is 6,113.26 hectares. Forest planting has become a movement in the district, with an average of 2,000 hectares of concentrated acacia forests planted each year. Specifically, in 2022, 2,240 hectares of concentrated forests were planted; 114,020m3 of planted forest wood (equivalent to 86,655 tons), 10.1 million meter trees, and 15.12 million bamboo trees were exploited.

Although the source of wood is so abundant, in Con Cuong district, only Con Cuong Forestry One Member Co., Ltd. operates in the production of peeled wood to serve the Company's raw materials and a part of the people's materials. The processing quantity of Con Cuong Forestry One Member Co., Ltd. is only about 4,500 tons/year, accounting for about 5% of the output of planted forest wood exploited in the area. Thus, every year, more than 82,000 tons of planted forest wood; 10.1 million meter trees; 15.12 million bamboo trees are freely sold by people to traders, no unit or company has signed a cooperation agreement for output of products for the people.

According to officials from the Economic Infrastructure Department and the Agricultural Department of Con Cuong district, because the source of raw materials is relatively large, and there is no strong enough unit to cooperate in purchasing for the people, there is a situation where businesses arbitrarily organize chipping activities that are not in accordance with regulations. In addition, there are also some traders who coordinate with local people to set up weighing stations to facilitate the exploitation, purchase and transportation of raw acacia wood. These officials also affirmed that after purchasing raw acacia wood, most of the traders transfer it to Thanh Hoa province for wood processing. “This is the reality we have surveyed. On the people's side, although traders are forced to lower prices, they still benefit, but on the State's side, the forestry sector has not contributed. Therefore, this is a problem that Con Cuong district wants to have a solution for …” - Mr. Tran Anh Tuan, Head of the Economic - Infrastructure Department, Con Cuong District People's Committee discussed.

Mr. Luong Dinh Viet, Standing Deputy Secretary of the District Party Committee, Chairman of the People's Council of Con Cuong district, said that most of the area of ​​Con Cuong district is forest and forestry land; forest land has been assigned to the people for long-term management, protection and use, households have changed the crop structure, exploited the advantages by planting raw material forests, effectively greening bare hills. With a large area of ​​planted forests, high output of exploited forest wood, but the raw wood purchasing facilities, wood chip processing facilities are still fragmented, the number is still small and have not been granted operating licenses, so it has not promoted the development of the local raw wood processing industry. Therefore, it is recommended to pay attention to building policies to develop the wood processing and chipping industry in the area.

As a locality where an illegal wood chip factory exists, Chairman of the People's Committee of Nghia Binh Commune, Nguyen Van Thang, said that the authorities have drawn up a record for the third time and have provided guidance on completing the necessary paperwork to operate in accordance with regulations. However, he also pointed out a fact that makes him very embarrassed: every time the People's Committee draws up a record and requests the wood chip factory to stop operating, people come to the headquarters to ask questions.

Therefore, according to Mr. Nguyen Van Thang, in Nghia Binh commune there are more than 1,500 hectares of forestry land, including more than 900 hectares of production forest and about 600 hectares of protection forest. Of the 900 hectares of production forest, there are 100 hectares of natural forest, the remaining area is planted with acacia. Because Nghia Binh people are self-sufficient in seeds for specialized cultivation, the harvest value is quite high, reaching from 120 - 130 million/ha. Especially since the wood chip factory was established, people have solved the problem of product output, not having to sell through weighing stations to send to wood chip factories in Thanh Hoa, so it is convenient in exploitation, transportation and increasing economic value. Therefore, people in the area wish for the wood chip factory to operate.

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Some people even put pressure on the local government, asking why they didn't push away the things that needed to be chased away.(sand mining - PV), the necessary thing to help people plant forests is being pushed away, not allowed to exist? This is a problem that the commune-level government cannot answer…”.

Mr. Nguyen Van Thang

In Chau Dinh commune (Quy Hop), there are two workshops that are illegally chipping wood chips. Both workshops installed machinery and organized wood chipping within the land under the management of the Youth Volunteer Force No. 3. As the Commander of the Provincial Youth Volunteer Force, directly in charge of the Youth Volunteer Force No. 3, Mr. Nguyen Dinh Thang affirmed that all cases of illegal workshops on land under the management of the Youth Volunteer Force have been handled.

However, Mr. Thang said that the General Team was assigned to manage the land area for the Project but had not yet been given the right to manage the land. Meanwhile, the land had been assigned to the team members to build houses and organize production. For the General Team No. 3, there had been a plan for transfer and merger with enterprises many years ago but it had not been thoroughly implemented. Meanwhile, the managing unit of the General Team of the General Team, the Provincial Youth Union, did not have the function of performing tasks in the field of land; on the other hand, opening a production workshop was an urgent need in processing forest products, so it was really difficult to manage.

Nguyen Dinh Thang, Commander of the Provincial Youth Volunteer Force, said: “The command has issued documents requesting the owners of the establishments to suspend production and only produce when they have completed all the required procedures. However, the owners of the establishments do not have legal rights to use the land, and it is very difficult to complete the conditions for operation until they have been handed over to the local authorities. Therefore, due to the urgent need for output for acacia trees, some establishments are still secretly organizing wood chipping activities…”

Recorded in Bai Tranh, Nghi Son

During our stay in Tan Ky district, we visited 2/18 wood purchasing and weighing facilities (weighing stations) located along Ho Chi Minh road. At these addresses, the people working there informed us that after purchasing acacia wood, it will be shipped to the North, mostly to Thanh Hoa province. Not only that, they also said that there are very few local people who own the weighing stations, most of them are from other provinces, of which the majority are from Thanh Hoa province. “Round wood is transported by trucks along Ho Chi Minh road to chip factories in Bai Tranh area, or down National Highway 48D to Nghi Son town. Wood chips are brought to the port's storage yards…” - said the accountant of a weighing station.

To verify the information provided, we followed the Ho Chi Minh road twice to the border area of ​​Nghe An - Thanh Hoa. Stopping right next to the Thanh Hoa border sign, in Nghia Lam commune (Nghia Dan), we witnessed many glue trucks heading north. Following these trucks, we saw that they all stopped to pour glue at wood chip factories located in Bai Tranh commune, Nhu Xuan district. They were Xuan Son Forest Products Processing and Import-Export Company Limited; Thanh Nam Wood Processing Factory; TCT Wood Chip Factory...

Spending time at the intersection of Ho Chi Minh Road and National Highway 48D through Nghia Dan District, we witnessed many large trucks carrying whole acacia trees and wood chips along National Highway 48D towards Nghi Son Port. Following one of these convoys, as we heard at the acacia weighing station in Tan Ky District, they all entered Nghi Son Port area. For wood chip trucks, they were transported straight to the storage yard deep inside the port, while round acacia trees were transported to some wood chip factories outside the port. Using a flycam to observe the cargo yards in Nghi Son Port, we noted that there were many storage yards with "mountains" of wood chips waiting to be transported onto ships.

Talking to some managers about what they have witnessed in Bai Tranh area and Nghi Son port. According to them, this is a reality and not surprising. Because Nghi Son port is a deep-water port in the region, it can receive cargo ships with a capacity of tens of thousands of tons, which is convenient for transporting wood chips. Besides, in Thanh Hoa province, there are currently many enterprises and wood processing facilities; the number of enterprises exporting wood chip products directly to foreign markets is also very large. Because of the large consumption of acacia wood, the chip-cutting facilities in Thanh Hoa province often pay high prices, and pay immediately after loading the acacia, so the people of the province often sell to them.

During a visit to Phu Quy Forestry Processing Joint Stock Company (Nghia Long, Nghia Dan), Mr. Tran Xuan Nghia - Deputy Director of the Company also said the same thing. And said that the company's wood chips are also produced through an intermediary unit for export; therefore, export tax is also paid in Thanh Hoa. At that time, we asked Mr. Tran Xuan Nghia: Why doesn't the company connect to directly export goods? The answer was: To be able to connect with foreign partners to directly export goods, it requires a large source of raw materials. When the enterprise does not have enough capacity to meet the conditions, it is very difficult to export directly. Meanwhile, enterprises in Thanh Hoa already have a market, their problem is just how to purchase to meet orders...".

Leaders of the Economic Department of Thai Hoa town also said that some businesses in the area have also compared the policy mechanism between Thanh Hoa and Nghe An provinces. They said that Thanh Hoa province is more open to the wood chip industry. “They argued that the wood processing industry is an industry with investment incentives, and there has never been any legal document prohibiting wood chip activities. Therefore, when the consumption demand of organizations, units and people growing acacia in the province is very large, restricting this industry is unrealistic…”.

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Data in the first quarter of 2024 from the Department of Industry and Trade of Thanh Hoa showed that informal exports and exports to enterprises outside the province were estimated at 13.1 million USD, an increase of 23.4% over the same period and equal to 21.9% of the plan, of which wood chip exports reached 131,000 m3.³.

>>Lesson 1: Close-up of an illegal wood chip factory
>>Lesson 3: Inspection of wood chip processing and chopping activities