With its strengths in local resources, especially medicinal herbs, and diverse cultural identity, the highlands of Quang Nam have seen many outstanding startup projects in recent years. However, many challenges remain in bringing highland products to larger markets.
Ríah Cường (born in 1991, Arooi village, Ga Ry commune, Tay Giang district) is studying Information Technology at Quang Nam University with the desire to access and learn about scientific and technological advancements to apply and contribute to his hometown.
Mr. Ríah Cường inspects the medicinal herb garden of the cooperative.
Having become familiar with various economic models, in 2015, Mr. Cuong returned to his hometown to dig a pond for fish farming. Later, he realized the market demand for Codonopsis pilosula was enormous, so he invested in planting nearly 1 hectare of this herb.
Some time later, Mr. Cuong came across the Truong Son Green project, funded by USAID. He was sent to learn skills in developing an economy based on local resources and how to organize new models suitable for mountainous conditions. He realized that he alone would not have enough resources to increase the value of agricultural products and medicinal herbs in the highlands.
Ríah Cường shared his entrepreneurial journey.
Mr. Cuong, along with 11 other members who are also from the Co Tu ethnic group in Tay Giang, established the Truong Son Xanh Agricultural and Pharmaceutical Cooperative. Later, as the project developed, the cooperative recruited several Kinh members, increasing its financial resources.
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Currently, the cooperative has developed many product lines, including ginseng extract, ginseng jam, ginseng wine, and other packaged medicinal herbs such as rehmannia glutinosa, Ganoderma lucidum, and cymbidium. We have also expanded our partnerships with more than 20 households in the communes of A Tieng, Lang, Ch'om, and Ga Ry to establish a 20-hectare raw material area for rehmannia glutinosa and rehmannia glutinosa.
Ríah Cường
In 2022, the ginseng-braised chicken product of Truong Son Xanh Agricultural and Pharmaceutical Cooperative was recognized by the Quang Nam Provincial People's Committee as a provincial-level innovative startup project. The product was highly appreciated for its quality and reached markets in major cities.
When mentioning medicinal herbs in Nam Tra My or the cultivation and sale of Ngoc Linh ginseng there, one cannot overlook the brand of Ms. Ho Thi Muoi, also known as Muoi Cuong. Ms. Muoi is a Ca Dong woman who has worked at the Agricultural Technical Center of Nam Tra My district for 20 years. In addition to her regular working hours, this female officer also goes to each village and hamlet to work with the people to research ways to develop the local economy using agricultural products and medicinal herbs.
Ms. Ho Thi Muoi produces products from Ngoc Linh ginseng.
Ms. Mười is the first ethnic minority person to pioneer in packaging medicinal products from the Nam Trà My highlands, such as Ngọc Linh ginseng, Gynostemma pentaphyllum, Gynostemma pentaphyllum tea, Ganoderma lucidum mushrooms, and Southern ginseng, for the market. In 2019, her economic model was recognized as a provincial-level innovative startup project. Subsequently, two of her products, Gynostemma pentaphyllum tea in filter bags and Gynostemma pentaphyllum tea, received OCOP 3-star certification.
The Gynostemma pentaphyllum tea product has been awarded a 3-star OCOP certification.
Currently, Ms. Ho Thi Muoi's business has about 10 highly commercialized product lines processed from medicinal herbs. Starting a business in the mountainous region of Nam Tra My faced difficulties due to remote and inaccessible roads, but Ms. Muoi recognized the power of communication and packaging.
She invested heavily in upgrading her product designs to make them more attractive and appealing to demanding markets. This approach is proving effective, as her products are displayed alongside luxury products from large companies and corporations, yet still attract customers.
With a planned raw material area of 10 hectares, Ms. Mười has been cultivating characteristic medicinal herbs of Nam Trà My such as Ngọc Linh ginseng, Gynostemma pentaphyllum, and Southern ginseng... In addition, she has also linked and cooperated in production with more than 100 other household groups in the locality, forming a highland startup community.
Ms. Bhling Thi Doi (born in 1994, Cha Lang village, Ch'om commune, Tay Giang district) owns 3 hectares of production forest land. Instead of planting acacia trees like other households in the area, Ms. Doi chose to build a raw material supply area for traders. She intercrops ginseng under corn, ginger, and beans. In 2023, she harvested nearly 800 kg of ginseng, selling it to Truong Son Xanh Agricultural and Pharmaceutical Cooperative, and nearly 5 tons of ginger to traders. However, her model is facing instability due to the lack of sustainable product procurement linkages.
Ms. Doi is currently cultivating 3 hectares of medicinal herbs and highland agricultural products.
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When I sell to the local cooperative, they are responsible for transporting the ginger and then processing it into finished products. But when I sell to traders from other places, I'm constantly pressured on the price. They cite high transportation costs, claiming that transporting several tons of ginger from the mountains to the lowlands costs several million dong. They deduct this from the price of the goods, so in the end, I don't make much profit. The labor involved in planting, caring for, and harvesting the ginger from the mountains and bringing it home doesn't even cover the transportation costs.
Bhling Thi Doi
In the case of the Green Forest Ecological Cooperative for Clean Vegetables, headed by Ms. Koor Thi Nghe (Ga Ry commune, Tay Giang district), after investing in machinery and equipment to enhance the value of mountainous agricultural products through drying, preservation, and raw processing, they encountered a problem with electricity supply. In this border region, the national power grid infrastructure only ensures sufficient power for daily life, so when production requires high-power machinery, the grid is insufficient to meet the demand.
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"The current power grid is only single-phase, while the machinery I'm using requires three-phase power, so I have to rent a production workshop far away from the growing area. In some areas, electricity hasn't reached, so we even have to use generators. This significantly increases production costs, making our products very difficult to compete with on the market."
Ms. Koor Thi Nghe
Besides the difficulties of long distances and the lack of a synchronized electricity system, mountainous areas also frequently suffer from natural disasters such as flash floods, landslides, and hailstorms.
During the rainy season, transportation and trade from the highlands to the lowlands are almost completely disrupted. Most recently, on April 24th, Ga Ry commune (Tay Giang district) experienced a historic hailstorm, completely destroying large areas of crops belonging to local people.
Ms. Do Ngoc Anh Tuyet (born in 1985, Kham Duc town, Phuoc Son district) has included her dried F1 black pig meat and black glutinous rice wine (distilled from local rice wine) in the province's 3-star OCOP product list and expanded her market to major cities nationwide. In 2023, Ms. Tuyet sold over 1 ton of finished dried meat products and hundreds of liters of black glutinous rice wine.
[VIDEO] - Startup entrepreneurs talk about the difficulties in doing business and producing in the highlands:
Understanding market demand, Ms. Tuyet planned to expand production, upgrading from manual methods to semi-automatic machinery to ensure sufficient output. However, with limited financial resources, Ms. Tuyet did not have enough money for investment and considered borrowing from a policy bank with preferential interest rates.
Despite not facing financial difficulties, Mr. Tran Quang Tuan (born in 2000, Tra Linh commune, Nam Tra My district) has had to postpone his plans to expand the production and commercialization of Ngoc Linh ginseng products due to a lack of high-quality personnel. With three ginseng gardens in the communes of Tra Linh, Tra Cang, and Tra Nam, containing over 10,000 Ngoc Linh ginseng plants, including approximately 5,000 plants aged 5 years and older that are ready for harvest, Mr. Tuan planned to produce commercial products such as ginseng extract, ginseng essence, ginseng tea, etc.
In fact, many factories and research centers for medicinal herbs and Ngoc Linh ginseng in Nam Tra My district opened on a rather impressive scale in terms of technical equipment, but quickly closed down due to a lack of personnel.
Returning to the Tây Giang highlands in early May, the hills previously used only for growing acacia trees have now been replaced by large-scale medicinal herb gardens. Many collective economic models, such as cooperatives and production groups, have been established, providing a legal basis for the raw materials produced by the people. Most of these entities have signed contracts with businesses and factories in the lowlands to supply raw materials for the production of processed products.
Mr. Tran Duc An, Managing Director of Ngoc Linh Ginseng Tu Mo Rong Joint Stock Company - Kon Tum, said that for many years, the company has signed contracts to purchase Ngoc Linh ginseng from Nam Tra My district and Dang ginseng from Tay Giang district. During a recent survey of Dang ginseng quality in Ch'om and Ga Ry communes, Mr. An plans to sign a contract guaranteeing the purchase of the produce from local farmers.
[VIDEO] - Mr. Tran Duc An - Managing Director of Ngoc Linh Tu Mo Rong Ginseng Joint Stock Company - Kon Tum:
Most startup projects in the highlands are trending towards focusing on producing raw medicinal herbs, supplying companies and corporations specializing in the production of functional foods or products related to medicinal herbs and medicines... with clear and stable memoranda of understanding and economic contracts. Among them, the Mười Cường business, the Ngọc Linh ginseng cultivation model of Mr. Trương Quang Tuấn, the Trường Sơn Xanh Agricultural and Pharmaceutical Cooperative, and the Rừng Xanh Ecological Clean Vegetable Cooperative are also following this direction.
This model involves producing beans based on company orders.
Mr. Pham Ngoc Sinh, Deputy Director of the Department of Science and Technology and Head of the Steering Committee for Supporting Innovative Startups in Quang Nam province, said that in recent years, the startup ecosystem in Quang Nam has developed extensively from the forests to the sea. Startup projects in the highlands have seen breakthroughs in both quantity and quality by leveraging the strengths of local resources from agricultural products and medicinal herbs.
In particular, these projects also invest quite meticulously in the visuals, packaging, and labeling of their products. The entrepreneurs also know how to draw on the culture of their highland communities, telling compelling stories about their products and creating a unique selling point when launching them to the market.
Mr. Pham Ngoc Sinh provides guidance for startup projects in mountainous regions.
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Therefore, in addition to leveraging local strengths, entrepreneurs in the highlands need to continuously learn and hone the necessary skills to operate their production and business models. They should equip themselves with modern scientific and technological advancements in medicinal plant cultivation to improve product quality. If they can do this, I believe that the highlands of Quang Nam will have a strong brand of medicinal herbs that many other localities do not possess.
Mr. Pham Ngoc Sinh
However, Mr. Sinh also acknowledged that startup projects in mountainous areas still face many limitations in terms of transportation infrastructure, financial resources, and human resources. In particular, the entrepreneurial and business management skills of startup entrepreneurs are still lacking compared to the current general standard.
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