Finding a new direction for star anise raw material area of ​​Lang Son

Finding ways to "solve difficulties" for local star anise agricultural products

Living in the star anise raw material area, Lan knew from a young age that this is a precious medicinal plant, good for health. In the family, Lan's grandmother   Satisfied   spent her whole life trading star anise to the Chinese market, and her father was a military doctor who used many traditional Vietnamese medicines from his experience. Folklore uses star anise to help treat various types of stones such as kidney stones, gallstones, bladder stones...

"Born and raised in the mountains, due to difficult family circumstances, I was not able to further my education. However, I followed my grandmother to trade star anise in the border markets of Lang Son since I was young, and also helped my father with small tasks such as assisting him in dispensing traditional medicine at home to treat many people's illnesses" - Ms. Tran Thi Thu Lan, Director of the Ban Quyen Trang Dinh Agricultural and Forestry Service Production Cooperative - recalled.

Workers of the Ban Quyen Trang Dinh Agricultural and Forestry Products Service Production Cooperative pack star anise tea.

Ms. Tran Thi Thu Lan said: "At first, I simply thought of doing something with the abundant star anise source available in my hometown. Because some years the neighboring countries buy a lot, some years they buy little or not at all. Star anise products in the locality are congested, unsold, and can only be sold at cheap retail prices in neighboring areas, or traders force down prices. Moreover, if people need to use star anise medicinal herbs to make traditional medicine, they have to boil the medicine to drink, many people who travel far will not be able to use it conveniently. So I had the idea of ​​launching star anise tea bags, so that people can conveniently carry them with them, and can make and drink them anywhere. The idea of ​​establishing my cooperative was also formed from there."

The Trang Dinh Copyright Agricultural and Forestry Service Production Cooperative with the star anise tea production line of Ms. Tran Thi Thu Lan (established in July 2021) was born with countless difficulties due to lack of capital, limited business experience, and difficulties in digital transformation and accessing high technology science and technology. Ms. Lan said: "At that time, I invested more than 400 million VND in a drying oven, more than 100 million VND in a chopping machine, more than 100 million VND in a grinding machine, more than 100 million VND in a packaging machine, also more than 100 million VND in a stamping machine, printer, washing machine... The total investment was about more than 1 billion VND for the cooperative, with the desire to both save and borrow from the bank to realize my dream".

Her happiness is to contribute to consuming all the star anise from her hometown.

The cooperative's process is to purchase raw star anise, wash it, sort out impurities, put the product in a chopper, dry it, and then process it. "From the very beginning of the cooperative, I carefully checked after each step to see if there were any impurities. Because this is food and drink, I had to make sure it was clean, then put the product in the grinder. Then I mixed and packaged it into star anise tea bags. I kept exploring step by step to find a way to bring the product to the market, creating stable jobs for 8 seasonal workers and 15 workers at peak times, all of whom are local women, with a salary of about 6 to 8 million VND/month."

"However, as soon as the cooperative was established, it was severely affected by the prolonged Covid-19 pandemic, causing all agricultural import and export activities to stagnate. Because I had invested heavily in the cooperative and the dream of enriching my homeland did not let me be discouraged, I gradually overcame the difficulties," said Ms. Lan.

Encourage women members to develop the economy by growing star anise

To keep the cooperative operating stably, Ms. Lan proactively built a private brand for the cooperative with full stamps, labels, barcodes to trace the origin and star anise tea products that have been quality tested at the National Institute for Food Safety and Hygiene (Ministry of Health).

In August 2023, Lan Ngoc star anise tea product was officially launched by the Cooperative on the market, with specially designed packaging with subtitles in both English and Vietnamese, priced at 80,000 VND/box.

Ms. Lan was commended and recognized by the Women's Union of Lang Son province.

In particular, in addition to direct sales, the cooperative also promotes online business on social networking platforms such as Zalo, Facebook, Tiktok... Her products not only serve customers in Lang Son province, but are now available at some rest stops on the Lang Son - Hanoi highway, supermarkets in provinces such as Hanoi, Ninh Binh, Phu Tho, Quang Ninh..., contributing to improving local agricultural products and increasing income for people.

To promote the development of the star anise growing area of ​​Lang Son, Ms. Thu Lan has encouraged and motivated women members to join hands in taking care of star anise plants. "Recently, I have closely coordinated with the Women's Union of De Tham and Kim Dong communes (Trang Dinh district) to give fertilizers and gifts to poor and near-poor households, helping them have more conditions to fertilize the star anise plants to grow. Because my happiness is to contribute to consuming all the star anise of my hometown people, helping disadvantaged households in the locality stabilize their lives when living in the star anise growing area".

Looking back on the past, Ms. Lan concluded: " For anyone, if they are determined to overcome their circumstances, they will succeed. Every time I overcome difficulties and pressure, it is a valuable lesson for me. At first, when my business experience was limited, I learned from many media, attended training courses on the market, business, science and technology of the Women's Union and local organizations, and gradually found ways to overcome my difficulties."

That is also the reason why she was awarded the title "Outstanding Woman" by the Vietnam Women's Union (2024); was awarded the Certificate of Merit by the Lang Son Provincial Women's Union "Outstanding Female Cooperative Leader in Production and Business, Creating Jobs for Female Workers (2024), and the Certificate of Merit by the Vietnam Cooperative Alliance and many other levels and sectors.

On April 10, 2025, Ms. Lan was honored to receive the Cooperative Star Award "CoopStar Awards" 2025 from the Vietnam Cooperative Alliance.

Director of Ban Quyen Trang Dinh Agricultural and Forestry Service Production Cooperative said: "In the coming time, we will focus on upgrading product designs and packaging. Adjust the weight of each product bag to suit each customer segment; improve the production process, invest in additional machinery systems for processing and preserving products. At the same time, we will increase product promotion on social networking platforms to bring the product closer to consumers and gradually establish a stable position in the market. Along with that, the Cooperative will continue to complete the dossier, submit it to competent authorities to move towards building star anise tea products into OCOP products. Currently, the Cooperative has also researched and launched more medicinal tea products such as: blood vine tea, vine tea, dai toan tea..., meeting the increasing needs of domestic and foreign customers".

Source: https://phunuvietnam.vn/tim-ra-huong-di-moi-cho-vung-nguyen-lieu-hoa-hoi-xu-lang-20250426121156697.htm