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; 114,020 cubic meters of planted forest wood (equivalent to 86,655 tons), 10.1 million meters of 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, there are more than 82,000 tons of planted forest wood; 10.1 million meter trees; 15.12 million bamboo trees that people freely sell to traders, no unit or company has signed a cooperation agreement for output of products for the people.

According to the officials of 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 process of exploiting, purchasing and transporting 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 the price is forced down by traders, there are still benefits, 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 people for management, protection and long-term use, households have changed the crop structure, exploited advantages by planting raw material forests, effectively greening bare hills. With a large area of ​​planted forests, high output of planted forest timber, but raw wood purchasing facilities, wood chip processing facilities are still fragmented, the number is 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 chipping factory exists, Chairman of the People's Committee of Nghia Binh Commune, Nguyen Van Thang, said that the authorities have made a record for the third time and have provided guidance on completing the paperwork to operate in accordance with regulations. However, he also pointed out a fact that makes him very embarrassed, which is that every time the People's Committee of the commune makes a record and requests the wood chipping 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 protective forest. In 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 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 the things that should be expelled are not expelled.(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 machines and organized wood chipping within the land managed by 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 managed by the Youth Volunteer Force have been handled.

However, Mr. Thang said that the Team was assigned to manage the land area for the Project but had not actually been given the right to manage the land. Meanwhile, the land had been assigned to the team members' households to build houses and organize production. For the Youth Volunteer Team No. 3, many years ago there was a plan to transfer and merge with the enterprise but it had not been thoroughly implemented. Meanwhile, the managing unit of the Youth Volunteer Team, the Provincial Youth Union, did not have the function to carry out 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 facility owners to suspend production and only allow production when all procedures are completed as prescribed. However, the facility owners do not have legal rights to use the land, and until they have been handed over to the locality, it is very difficult to complete the conditions for operation. Therefore, due to the urgent need for output for acacia trees, some facilities still secretly organize 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, most of whom are from Thanh Hoa province. “Round wood is transported by truck 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 are Xuan Son Forest Products Processing and Import-Export Company Limited; Thanh Nam Wood Processing Factory; TCT Wood Chip Factory...

Spending time at the intersection between 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 heard at the acacia weighing station in Tan Ky district, they all entered Nghi Son port area. For wood chips, 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, it was noted that there were many storage yards with "mountains" of wood chips gathered waiting to be transported to ships.

Discussing with some managers about what has been witnessed in Bai Tranh area and in Nghi Son port. According to them, this is a reality and nothing 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: 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 believe that Thanh Hoa province is more open to the wood chipping industry. “They argued that the wood processing industry is an industry with investment incentives, and there has never been any legal document prohibiting wood chipping 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.

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