Linking the cultivation of medicinal plants in Cam Lo: People are in trouble because businesses have long-term debt payments.

QTO - The model of growing medicinal plants An Xoa was once expected to open a new direction of development for people in the localities of Cam Lo district (old), now Cam Lo commune. However, the "broken" connection, businesses stopping purchasing and owing money for products for a long time made people suffer, fall into debt and struggle to find a new direction of production.

From hope of escaping poverty to disappointment of debt

After several heavy rains, walking along the medicinal herb garden, Mr. Tran Van Tan in Phuong An 2 village, Cam Lo commune (formerly Cam Nghia commune) could not help but feel sad. The garden used to be the family's hope for a stable income thanks to commitments from the partner, Agri-Dynamics Production and Trading Company Limited, Quang Tri branch (abbreviated as Agri-Dynamics Company), now only has a garden of overgrown grass, dry tree stumps and a moss-covered irrigation system.

In February 2022, Mr. Tan's family and several other households in the commune cooperated with Agri-Dynamics Company to plant more than 4.7 hectares of medicinal plants An Xoa. With the commitment to have output covered by the purchasing partner for export to the US, Mr. Tan boldly borrowed 60 million VND to invest in an irrigation system, buy seedlings, hire workers to plant and care for them. After more than a year, the family harvested the first crop of 10 tons of fresh An Xoa and the company purchased it at a price of 12,000 VND/kg.

“At that time, we were very excited because the company came to the garden to buy, so everyone hoped to change their lives with this medicinal plant. But in the next crop, the company suddenly stopped buying without any reason. From that time until now, the entire amount of money from selling the an xoa plants from the previous crop, more than 80 million VND, the company has not yet paid my family. Now we are in debt, we have to pay interest on the loan while the an xoa garden is getting older and older and cannot be harvested, the entire irrigation system is deteriorating, the family does not know what to do,” Mr. Tan worried.

Mr. Tran Van Thu is worried because his an xoa garden is getting older and older and cannot be harvested, but he is in debt from selling the products - Photo: LT

In the same situation, Mr. Tran Van Thu's family in Bang Dong village, Cam Lo commune (formerly Cam Nghia commune) also participated in the an xoa tree planting project since 2021. If calculated according to the growth cycle, on 1 hectare of an xoa of the family, up to now, they should have harvested 5-6 batches of fresh leaves. However, after nearly 4 years, Mr. Thu's family's an xoa garden has only harvested 1 batch because the business no longer buys it.

When the project was first implemented, Agri-Dynamics Company “promised” to support fertilizers and seeds, and the family invested an additional 120 million VND to install irrigation and cultivation systems. At that time, Thu’s father had to borrow this money and sell another pair of cows to invest. When the first harvest was harvested, the company purchased the crop for 120 million VND, but by the end of 2023, it had only paid 40 million VND, still owing 80 million VND to date.

“The family is very worried because after 4 years, the borrowed investment money has not been paid, and we have to take on more debt to take care of the trees that cannot be harvested. Sadly, my father was very enthusiastic about participating in the project at that time, hoping to “change his life”, but now he has passed away and we still have not received the full amount of money from selling the first batch of An Xoa trees,” Mr. Thu said indignantly.

After the first crop, in addition to Mr. Tan and Mr. Thu's families, up to now, 3 households participating in the project of growing medicinal plants have also fallen into dire straits when the associated company stopped purchasing and owed money for the products.

Businesses "break promises", government faces difficulties

Being deployed for trial planting since 2021, the medicinal plant An Xoa has adapted, grown well and initially brought high economic value because it is suitable for the hilly soil of Cua area (formerly Cam Nghia and Cam Chinh communes), now in Cam Lo commune. Notably, the first batches of An Xoa medicinal plant extract were exported to the US market, opening up a potential development direction for this crop.

Nguyen Thanh Cong, Head of the Economic Department of Cam Lo Commune, said that at the time of the cooperation, Agri-Dynamics Company committed to supporting people in growing and consuming products. In addition, households were invested in fertilizers, plant varieties, and trained in planting, care, and harvesting techniques. Therefore, people also boldly invested and applied science and technology to cultivate according to export conditions.

However, after the first crop, this unit suddenly stopped purchasing and owed money to the people. Although before the merger, the local government of the old Cam Lo district had repeatedly urged and sent documents to Agri-Dynamics Company requesting to quickly settle the arrears for the people and have a plan to purchase the remaining An Xoa area. However, up to now, there are still 5 households in Cam Nghia commune (old) that the company owes more than 700 million VND that have not been paid.

Many households in Cam Lo commune are struggling with debt because businesses stopped purchasing and owed money for buying an xoa trees - Photo: LT

“Sharing the difficulties of households, after operating the two-level local government, we advised the Commune People's Committee to have a policy to support harvesting, and contacted a number of other units to find alternative outlets, but were unsuccessful. The medicinal plant An Xoa is not very popular and has high requirements for medicinal standards, so free consumption is difficult,” Mr. Cong informed.

Talking to reporters, Chairman of Cam Lo Commune People's Committee Nguyen Van An said that after operating the 2-level local government, the commune has grasped this issue. At the time of cooperating with Agri-Dynamics Company, to create favorable conditions for businesses, the locality supported the land for the business to build an an xoa processing factory with an investment capital of more than 11.8 billion VND. However, due to many objective factors, the business has not implemented it and the money to purchase products from the people is also in debt. This makes the people suffer and the new local government also has difficulty in solving the problem.

The locality has also encouraged people to switch to other crops with more stable markets; at the same time, it has supported 50% of the land improvement costs, helping people to quickly regain their production sites. However, the biggest difficulty is still the long-standing corporate debt that has prevented many households from recovering.

It is known that the households have filed a lawsuit to the court, however, due to the lack of legal evidence, the court did not accept the case. The people are continuing to collect and complete the documents to file a complaint against the business to the police agency requesting investigation and handling.

Le Truong

Source: https://baoquangtri.vn/toa-soan-ban-doc/202511/lien-ket-trong-cay-duoc-lieu-an-xoa-o-cam-lo-nguoi-dan-lao-dao-vi-doanh-nghiep-no-thanh-toan-keo-dai-4ec3e0a/