Nghe An focuses on developing raw materials from industrial crops to meet the requirements of deep processing.

Improving the quality of raw material areas.

Through efforts to improve the quality of its raw material areas, in 2024, Nghe An Tea Development Joint Stock Company had 40 hectares of tea certified as organic. This area has a tightly integrated supply chain, is cared for according to a specific process, and the product is guaranteed to be clean and free from heavy metal residues.

Mr. Nguyen Luong Toan, Deputy General Director of the company, said: Due to the low production volume, which is not yet sufficient for export, green tea produced from organic tea is currently being consumed in the domestic market. However, the selling price reaches hundreds of thousands of VND/kg, while regular tea only costs 20-30 thousand VND/kg; and the purchase price of raw materials from farmers is also higher, ranging from 500-600 thousand VND/ton.

With 1,500 hectares of tea plantations and established buying and selling relationships between farmers and businesses, Nghe An Tea Development Joint Stock Company basically has no shortage of raw materials for processing. However, there are still shortcomings in raw tea production, technical procedures are not strictly followed, management is lax, and product quality cannot yet meet the requirements for processing and exporting to demanding, high-value markets.

To address this issue, create a source of raw materials that meet the requirements for deep processing, and enhance production value, the company will focus on developing organic tea growing areas in the future. Accordingly, it will build and strengthen the link between tea growers and the factory, in which the factory will transfer scientific and technological advancements in land preparation, planting, care, and especially in managing the use of fertilizers and pesticides.

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To ensure close and secure linkages, it is necessary to establish cooperatives and associations to act as a "bridge" between people and businesses, ensuring legal compliance and accountability between the two parties. The supply chain must be built through contracts to create safe raw material areas, ensuring a supply of raw materials for deep processing, and producing products that meet export standards for demanding, high-value markets.

Mr. Nguyen Luong Toan - Deputy General Director of Nghe An Tea Development Joint Stock Company

Sharing the common goal of producing and exporting high-value tea products, Asia Hoa Son Joint Stock Company has focused on developing over 50 hectares of organic tea; the company has also signed contracts to link and purchase raw materials from farmers on an area of ​​4,000 hectares of tea, thereby expanding its export market.

According to Mr. Nguyen Van Giang, Deputy General Director of the company: In the first eight months of the year alone, export turnover increased by nearly 40% compared to the same period last year. However, currently, not only demanding markets like Russia and Europe have very strict standards, but also large, traditional markets such as West Asian countries, which account for more than 60% of export volume, are increasingly tightening food safety standards. To meet these requirements, the company aims to develop an additional 300 hectares of organic tea by 2028.

Furthermore, in 2022, with the goal of exporting products to the European market, the company invested in a deep processing line to produce glucose sugar, requiring the cassava raw material to meet organic standards. To date, the company has established over 100 hectares of cassava that have received organic certification, meeting the requirements for producing products for export to the United States.

In the first eight months of this year, the company exported its first shipment to the US and also signed export orders to Europe until the end of the year. Based on the promising market outlook, Hoa Son Asia Joint Stock Company aims to expand its clean raw material area to 3,000 hectares by 2028.

Increasing the value of "key" crops in mountainous regions.

With over 6,300 hectares of production forest, developing raw material crops is one of the key economic development priorities in Anh Son commune, including acacia trees. The commune's Party Congress Resolution identified several solutions to improve the quality of raw materials to meet the increasingly high demands of processing, increase sustainable and stable production value, and raise people's income.

Mr. Nguyen Tran Chuong, Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of the commune, said: "We focus on advising, guiding, and encouraging people to apply standard production processes from seed to care and harvesting, especially expanding the production of large acacia timber forests, considering this an important direction to increase production value."

“In recent years, the purchase price of raw acacia wood has increased significantly, and there is almost no premature cutting and selling of acacia trees in the area. However, the area planted with large timber trees is not yet large. If processing businesses come in to establish stable purchasing agreements, the local authorities and people are ready to cooperate,” said Mr. Nguyen Tran Chuong.

With its large land area and diverse climatic conditions suitable for the growth of many crops, the mountainous regions of the province have, in recent years, developed large raw material areas for tea, acacia, sugarcane, cassava, etc.; the agricultural and forestry processing industry is also one of the "key" sectors prioritized for development by the province. Therefore, the issue of establishing raw material areas has also received attention.

Each year, Nghe An province allocates tens of billions of VND from its budget to support investment and enhance the value of raw materials; in particular, many businesses investing in the construction of processing plants have significantly contributed to promoting the development of high-quality raw material areas. To date, the entire province has more than 25,000 hectares of sustainably certified forests; nearly 8,000 hectares of tea plantations are being harvested, yielding approximately 70,000 tons of fresh tea leaves annually. Of these, over 100 hectares are VietGAP and organic tea, meeting the standards for deep processing.

To increase the value of raw materials and support deep processing for businesses, Nghe An needs to continue implementing comprehensive solutions from the government, businesses, and the people.

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We need to do a good job of planning production areas and developing raw materials, linking them with processing facilities and factories; at the same time, we need solutions for managing raw material areas to ensure that the raw material areas meet standards, not only for processing and consumption domestically but also for processing for export.

Ms. Vo Thi Nhung - Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Environment