Opportunities for the country's largest cinnamon-growing region.

From two provinces with the largest cinnamon growing areas in the country, after the merger, the (new) Lao Cai province has become a "super" cinnamon region of Vietnam, opening up golden opportunities for the cinnamon industry to break through.

In recent years, both the former Yen Bai and former Lao Cai provinces have considered cinnamon as a key crop, developing strategic directions and synchronizing policies for sustainable development and value chain linkages.

Lao Cai province has over 143,000 hectares of cinnamon trees, accounting for 75% of the country's total cinnamon growing area.

During the period 2021-2025, Yen Bai province shifted from supporting the development of concentrated, specialized cinnamon growing areas with seedlings to supporting the development of organic cinnamon production linked along the value chain.

Support includes: 100% of the costs for assessing and identifying raw material areas, establishing cooperation mechanisms between processing facilities, cinnamon growers, and local authorities, and completing certification registration dossiers; costs for assessing and granting organic certification; costs for designing samples and purchasing labels, packaging, and product packaging; OCOP product certification and participation in domestic and international trade promotion activities… The total support funding will not exceed 2 billion VND per project.

The former Yen Bai province also selected over 50 trees that met the standards and implemented a model to build a land fund for planting superior seedlings selected from nurseries with seeds taken from superior trees to preserve and develop superior genetic resources.

The former Lao Cai province also issued Resolution No. 10 on the Strategy for the Development of Commercial Agriculture in the province until 2030, with a vision to 2050, setting specific targets for the area and production value of cinnamon trees by 2025, 2030, and 2050.

A series of central and provincial policies have been issued and implemented in an integrated manner to promote the sustainable development of cinnamon raw material areas, such as: support for cinnamon planting after investment of 10 million VND/hectare; support for building cinnamon value chains; support for organic certification; support for building processing and preliminary processing facilities for agricultural and forestry products; and piloting a mechanism to support land clearance for investment projects in processing agricultural, forestry, and aquatic products to attract and encourage investment…

Sharing the same orientation, goals, and objectives, the two provinces, which are among the top in the country for cinnamon production, have "coincidentally" created a huge raw material area for the newly merged Lao Cai province. To date, the province has over 143,000 hectares of cinnamon, accounting for 75% of the country's cinnamon area, generating approximately 2,500 billion VND in value annually. Many concentrated cinnamon cultivation areas have been formed and developed sustainably, with 23,700 hectares of cinnamon certified organic.

Furthermore, facilitating and encouraging businesses to invest in production, deep processing, and refined processing has attracted 41 large-scale enterprises and cooperatives, along with hundreds of small-scale household businesses, to participate in the preliminary processing and processing of products. This has not only resulted in the consumption of hundreds of thousands of tons of cinnamon (branches, leaves, bark) locally for the people but also created a diverse range of products, meeting the demands of both domestic and export markets, thus increasing their value.

Cinnamon products are now exported to 39 countries and territories worldwide, ranging from easy-going to demanding markets. These impressive figures, along with the lessons learned from decades of cinnamon cultivation, give Lao Cai province a significant competitive advantage in terms of scale and production, confidently positioning it as the leading cinnamon production and processing center in the country.

The large scale and strong development potential of the cinnamon growing region, combined with the international border gate, will be a "magnet" attracting domestic and foreign investors, from modern processing plants and warehousing systems to logistics and agricultural processing industrial zones.

This also creates favorable conditions for our province to organize the production and refining of cinnamon essential oil into high-value essential oils instead of just exporting crude essential oil as before. At the same time, it will create a strong and unified cinnamon brand for the region.

Instead of two separate brands, a single brand will have a wider reach, making it easier to access demanding markets and enhance competitiveness. Trade promotion and product advertising activities will also be organized on a larger and more professional scale.

Furthermore, the authorities at all levels and relevant professional sectors will gain a more comprehensive understanding of the potential of both regions, thereby developing focused strategies and implementing effective, coordinated support policies to overcome difficulties and help Lao Cai cinnamon reach further, accessing large, high-value consumer markets such as the United States, Japan, and Nordic countries.

Clearly, an unprecedented golden opportunity is opening up for the cinnamon industry. The Party committees, local authorities, and people in the cinnamon-growing region are eagerly awaiting and hoping for the province's overall strategic directions to promote the cinnamon industry's development to its full potential.

Mr. Do Cao Quyen, Chairman of the People's Committee of Mo Vang commune, shared: "Mo Vang commune is currently one of the key raw material areas with 7,335 hectares of cinnamon with high essential oil content and good quality."

The commune hopes that the province and relevant departments and agencies will soon direct the issuance of a plan for concentrated cinnamon raw material areas linked to each sub-region in terms of climate and soil. In particular, they hope for the creation of a real-time digital map of cinnamon trees to serve planning purposes; cinnamon forest management, gene conservation; and development orientation. The digital map of cinnamon trees will also serve as a marketing tool to reassure businesses about the local cinnamon supply and quality.

"At the same time, there are support measures to form cooperatives, production groups, and household production groups along the value chain from production - processing - consumption; training in techniques for planting, caring for, and processing cinnamon in an organic and modern way for the people; preferential mechanisms for businesses and cooperatives to invest in the preliminary processing and processing of essential oils and organic cinnamon products, especially on-site; attention to supporting investment in infrastructure serving the value chain, from transportation roads, preliminary processing systems, storage warehouses, to wholesale agricultural markets..." - Mr. Quyen added.

We are confident that, going forward, the cinnamon industry in Lao Cai will take solid steps, maximizing the advantages of the raw material area, building concentrated, modern, and sustainable production areas, increasing people's income, and making an important contribution to the socio-economic development of the province.

Source: https://baolaocai.vn/co-hoi-cho-vung-que-lon-nhat-ca-nuoc-post648339.html