Nearly VND 70,000 billion to develop Vietnamese ginseng

Long distance orientation

On June 15, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development coordinated with the People's Committee of Quang Nam province to organize a workshop on building a program to develop Vietnamese ginseng to 2030 and orientation to 2045.

According to the General Department of Forestry, Vietnamese ginseng is a precious and rare medicinal herb with special uses that few other medicinal plants have. Up to now, a number of localities have cultivated and developed ginseng, mainly Ngoc Linh ginseng such as Quang Nam and Kon Tum provinces with an area of more than 6,000ha. Planting and developing ginseng initially created jobs and increased income for local people, especially ethnic minorities in remote and isolated areas, improved infrastructure, and contributed to rural construction. new.

In addition, a number of enterprises have also focused on processing and diversifying products to expand the market for ginseng consumption. However, the cultivation, processing and consumption of ginseng in general are still not commensurate with the potential and strengths such as lack of planning to develop raw material areas, lack of quality seed sources, lack of deep processing facilities. , advertising, promotion, and branding is still limited.

In order to improve the value of Vietnamese ginseng, on the basis of the Prime Minister's document on building the "Program to develop Vietnamese ginseng until 2030 and orientation to 2045", last April, the Ministry of Agriculture- Rural Development has sent documents to the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Science and Technology and 8 provinces on the assessment and summary of projects/programs during the past time and building the Ginseng Program until 2030.

Accordingly, the program has 6 component projects including Investigating, evaluating, and zoning ginseng conservation associated with forest protection and development; Developing areas of planting materials and concentrated ginseng development; Research, development and selection of varieties; Promoting sustainable and comprehensive processing and trading of Vietnamese ginseng products along the value chain; Brand development, market promotion, trade promotion; To develop infrastructure of ginseng growing areas in association with infrastructure development of ethnic minorities and mountainous areas. Capital demand is expected to be nearly 70,000 billion VND.

The program to develop Vietnamese ginseng with the goal of building and developing Vietnamese ginseng into a commodity of high economic value, branded as a national product associated with sustainable use of forest resources on the basis of exploitation. local potentials and advantages, increase income for forest workers, contribute to socio-economic development in the local area where ethnic minorities live; ensure national defense and security.

By 2030, the whole country will have about 200,000 ha of natural ginseng in natural forests, mainly distributed in the provinces of Quang Nam, Kon Tum, Gia Lai, Lam Dong, Nghe An, Lai Chau and Lao Cai in association with the protection, forest development, biodiversity conservation. Forming a concentrated ginseng planting material area in Quang Nam, Kon Tum, Gia Lai, and Lai Chau provinces with an area of 27,000 ha. In which, Ngoc Linh ginseng area in Quang Nam, Kon Tum and Gia Lai is 25,900ha, Lai Chau ginseng is 800ha.

The program also aims to provide at least 80% of Vietnamese ginseng varieties with standard quality, controlled and legal origin for mass production. In which, at least 50% of seedlings are propagated from tissues to create new breakthroughs in yield and product quality.

According to Mr. Vu Thanh Nam, Deputy Director of the Department of Special-Use and Protection Forest Management (General Department of Forestry), with the area of ginseng in our country by 2030, the exploited output will reach about 500-700 tons to ensure quality. Quality is clearly decentralized, meeting GMP - WTO standards. At the same time, there are at least 5 establishments or factories for preliminary processing and processing of Vietnamese ginseng that meet GMP - WTO standards; there are 50 - 100 products of high quality and added value; including branded products on the world market.

“Besides, the program will also gradually improve and upgrade the infrastructure to serve the development of the Vietnamese ginseng industry; complete a synchronous policy on production organization and solutions to encourage the development of the Vietnamese ginseng industry in order to attract and encourage all economic sectors to invest in research, breeding, planting and processing. , trade-in Vietnamese ginseng products effectively and sustainably," said Mr. Nam.

There are still many problems

According to representatives of the provinces with ginseng growing areas, over the past time, the authorities of these provinces have had mechanisms and policies to preserve and develop original varieties, creating a significant source of ginseng varieties to supply to the people and manufacturing enterprises. The sustainable development of ginseng is based on the effective use of potential and specific advantages in terms of natural economic and social conditions.

In order to gradually increase the value of ginseng, localities have also oriented development in the direction of producing goods to meet market demand, linking raw material production with product consumption as well as encouraging other ingredients. economic participation in investment. Since then, groups of households, association groups as well as production and processing enterprises have been formed. Each year, the area planted to ginseng in the locality is also constantly increasing.

However, the investment and development of ginseng plants in the current localities still face difficulties and obstacles. As in Kon Tum province, more than 50% of the planned area for the development of Ngoc Linh ginseng is in the strictly protected area of special-use forest. Therefore, the development of Ngoc Linh ginseng is still limited because the 2017 Forest Law does not allow an impact on special-use forests.

In addition, the quality management of Ngoc Linh ginseng, especially the identification of origin, origin and quality, many fake ginseng products appeared on the market, which affected the reputation and brand of Ngoc Linh. this plant. In addition, the investment capital to develop Ngoc Linh ginseng is also very large, to invest in planting with an area of 1ha is estimated to cost billions of dong, so people cannot afford to invest.

According to Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu Lien, Deputy Director of Ngoc Linh Ginseng Research and Development Institute, when called a "national treasure", Ngoc Linh ginseng is no longer just a mere plant object in the list of cultivated plants. agriculture as well, which must become a special subject, with special treatment and special protection.

However, at present, Ngoc Linh ginseng is only being exploited as an economic object, not recognized as a "national treasure" with the mission of transporting indigenous knowledge, the convergence the quintessential biological form of the South, heaven and earth, and countless cultural stories associated with the survival of this extremely valuable medicinal plant.

Therefore, it is necessary to preserve the genetic resources of the native Ngoc Linh ginseng seed without hybridization. Before expanding the planting area and expanding the geographical population of Ngoc Linh ginseng, it is necessary to build a special biological and criminal record that is digitized and coded for Ngoc Linh ginseng. Quickly build a national brand strategy for Ngoc Linh ginseng, encourage and invest state resources for the birth of super products extracted and processed from Ngoc Linh Ginseng with outstanding value and use to value is enhanced.

Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Quoc Doanh said that, in recent years, more or less, we have formed a technological process to develop ginseng, attracting businesses to invest and produce. , processing and creating valuable products. This is the first step, a good signal to urge us to have a really more methodical process.

“Building a program to develop Vietnamese ginseng is not easy, especially for ginseng subjects. This is just the beginning, there is much more work to be done. Therefore, I suggest that the General Department of Forestry come here to practice in localities to survey in detail issues such as seeding, harvesting, processing and preservation to include in sub-projects and components.

In terms of capital, policies must be close, true, not displayed much, and stretched. At the same time, it is necessary to form a working group consisting of units of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and invite the Ministry of Health to participate. In addition, it is necessary to consult the Government Office, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Planning and Investment to get consensus, support, and develop a feasible program to submit to the Prime Minister for approval”, said Deputy Minister Le. Quoc Doanh suggested.