Nam Son bamboo shoot season
Chairman of Nam Son commune (Quy Hop district) Luong Van Long assured me that since the fourth lunar month until now, "modestly" people in the commune have earned over one billion VND from selling dried bamboo shoots.
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Nam Son has 5,800 hectares of natural forest. After a long process of propaganda and mobilization, in 1995, the situation of forest clearing for farming gradually decreased and it was not until 2000 that it completely stopped. Since then, Nam Son forest has returned to its green color and begun to "show gratitude" to the local people. In addition to other benefits, those green bamboo forests have begun to produce bamboo shoot seasons, with the harvest yield each year always being higher than the previous year.
The forest in Nam Son has been divided among each village and each household, so collecting bamboo shoots has naturally become a rule. People in Quang and Khiet villages collect bamboo shoots in Pu Huong; Cha Hang villagers collect bamboo shoots in Pu Con; Tang villagers collect bamboo shoots in Khe Co forest... In nearby forests, people collect bamboo shoots and bring them back to boil and dry during the day. In far away forests, people go in groups of 5 to 10 people, bring rice and salt, and set up a hut in the forest for 4 to 5 days before carrying the dried bamboo shoots back all at once.
Because the forest land in Nam Son is fertile, compared to bamboo shoots in other places, bamboo shoots in Nam Son are often larger and have thicker flesh, so they are very valuable. During this bamboo shoot season, the price of dried bamboo shoots purchased in the villages in the commune is always at 35,000 - 40,000 VND/kg. When the weather is favorable, one person can go into the forest to pick bamboo shoots and earn one hundred thousand VND per day.
Cao Duy Thai