Son La with more than 80,000 hectares of fruit trees and hundreds of OCOP products has affirmed its position as the “fruit granary” of the North. However, for agricultural products to make a breakthrough, a synchronous solution is needed.
Forming more than 80,000 hectares of quality fruit trees
On the morning of October 4, at Moc Chau National Tourist Area, the People's Committee of Son La province coordinated with the Provincial Business Association to organize the 2025 Business Coffee Program with the theme "Connecting Enterprises - Cooperatives in the agricultural value chain".
2025 Business Coffee Program with the theme "Connecting Enterprises - Cooperatives in the agricultural value chain"
Speaking at the program, Mr. Nguyen Quoc Khanh - Former Vice Chairman, Chairman of the Son La Provincial Business Association said that from a mountainous province with mainly sloping terrain and few infrastructure advantages, Son La has made a strong transformation, rising to become the largest fruit tree center in the North and a bright spot in the development of high-tech agriculture in the country. High-tech agriculture has become an important factor in improving the lives of the people.ethnic minoritieslocal.
According to statistics from the People's Committee of Son La province, by 2025, the whole province will have more than 80,000 hectares of fruit trees, of which 24,300 hectares of coffee with an estimated output of nearly 38,000 tons, over 28,000 tons are certified for sustainable production according to international standards. The province has established 2 high-tech coffee growing areas in Mai Son and 9 industrial processing facilities, contributing to the increasingly asserting of the Son La coffee brand in the domestic and international markets.
With tea tree,Son LaThere are nearly 6,000 hectares, with an estimated output of about 60,000 tons, many famous specialty tea regions such as Ta Xua, San Tuyet, Moc Chau. Over 20 enterprises and cooperatives participate in processing and exporting, including typical brands such as Vinatea Moc Chau, Tan Lap Tea, Moc Suong Tea. In addition, the sugarcane area is about 10,000 hectares with an output of 500,000 tons; the cassava area is over 44,000 hectares with an output of nearly 540,000 tons; many types of vegetables and short-term industrial crops continue to maintain stability, diversifying raw materials for processing.
Not only crops, aquaculture and livestock have also developed strongly. The whole province now has more than 2,900 hectares of water surface, 6,900 cages and rafts, with an output of over 2,600 tons. Livestock has grown significantly, especially the Moc Chau milk brand has become a famous product throughout the country.
“After 10 years of implementing the policy of bringing fruit trees to sloping land, tens of thousands of hectares of ineffective land have been converted to grow mango, longan, plum, orange, grapefruit, avocado, passion fruit, creating vast fruit growing areas, bringing stable income to farmers. Up to now, Son La has had 308 safe agricultural product chains and 214 OCOP products, of which many products such as pure coffee powder, Moc Chau tea, Yen Chau mango, Song Ma longan, Moc Chau plum... have affirmed their position in the domestic and international markets." - Mr. Nguyen Quoc Khanh shared.
Son La agricultural products are sold at a modern distribution system (Photo: Mai Hoa)
Along with the development of agricultural production, Son La currently has more than 4,200 enterprises with a total registered capital of more than 90 trillion VND and over 1,000 cooperatives. Many enterprises and cooperatives have become the "nucleus" in the value chain, signing production linkage contracts with farmers, forming concentrated raw material areas. We can mention the coffee linkage model of Phuc Sinh Son La Company, the mango raw material area of Dong Giao Company, and the high-tech longan area of Phuong Nam Yen Chau Cooperative.
At the same time, agricultural processing factories such as Doveco, Nafoods, IC Food, Son La Sugarcane, Vinatea Moc Chau have consumed hundreds of thousands of tons of agricultural products, expanding export markets to China, Japan, Korea, and the EU. Many young businesses have also boldly started up in the fields of clean agricultural products, organic agriculture, and e-commerce, bringing Son La products to major e-commerce platforms.
The above achievements have affirmed the role of enterprises and cooperatives as the core force, contributing to bringing Son La agricultural products from small-scale production to commodity production, closely linked in a sustainable value chain.
Proposed solutions to promote agricultural product consumption in the coming time
Besides the achievements, Son La still faces many challenges: some linkage models are not tight; raw material areas are scattered, quality is not consistent; logistics and cold storage systems are still lacking; deep processing rate is low; many businesses are small, lack capital, and have difficulty investing in technology and digital transformation.
The business community and cooperatives of Son La have made many specific recommendations to improve competitiveness and promote the consumption of agricultural products in the coming time.
To overcome these limitations, the business community and Son La Cooperatives have made many specific recommendations to improve competitiveness and promote agricultural product consumption in the coming time.
The first,Departments, branches and sectors need to coordinate to effectively implement the Central Resolutions and the province's action plans, and at the same time issue specific policies to encourage businesses to strongly invest in high-tech agriculture, deep processing and building raw material areas that meet international standards.
Monday,Support businesses and cooperatives to innovate equipment and apply modern technology in processing and post-harvest preservation, while promoting the application of digital technology in production management, e-commerce, and traceability - the key to meeting international standards.
Tuesday,Invest in synchronous logistics infrastructure, cold storage systems, specialized logistics centers for agricultural products, modern transit and processing stations right in the raw material areas; upgrade key traffic infrastructure connecting with seaports, border gates and major consumption centers nationwide, to reduce costs, limit post-harvest losses and extend preservation time.
Wednesday,Promote the linkage between enterprises - cooperatives - farmers through long-term and transparent production - consumption contracts; build a close coordination mechanism between leading enterprises and cooperatives and farmer households to share benefits and risks, towards sustainable development, linking production with processing and consumption.
Thursday,promote trade, advertise, build brand, develop stronglye-commercePlatforms such as Shopee, Lazada, TikTok Shop, Sendo need to become the main channels to bring Son La agricultural products to millions of domestic and foreign customers. At the same time, develop a model combining agriculture with eco-tourism, agricultural tourism, creating experiential tours in fruit gardens, coffee, tea... turning tourists into customers and product promoters.
Mr. Nguyen Quoc Khanh affirmed: each unit needs to focus on buildingtrademarkseparately, while also being associated with the common brand "Son La agricultural products - green, safe, high quality", thereby affirming prestige and enhancing position in the international market.
With outstanding advantages and a system of synchronous solutions, Son La has enough foundation to continue to maintain its role as a center of green agriculture, high technology and eco-tourism in the Northwest region. The close connection between enterprises - cooperatives - farmers and the support of the government will be the key for Son La agricultural products to reach far, contributing to the development of the local economy in a green, fast and sustainable way./.