In recent times, Son La has had very new, methodical and breakthrough directions to gradually bring its strength in agriculture to a new level, thereby contributing to the overall development of the province.

From the variety of plants grown on sloping land…

Along with the task of attracting investment to build deep processing factories, the entire political system of Son La has joined in, contributing with the business community and cooperatives to build brands and find markets for agricultural products, especially fruit trees. Son La will continue to build raw material areas, issue new and maintain growing area codes, and link chains, because that is the "passport" for Son La province's agricultural products to go out to the world.

Sharing with VTV Times reporter, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Cong - Vice Chairman of Son La Provincial People's Committee - the number one commander in the agricultural sector of Son La province proudly said: "Son La agriculture has made remarkable breakthroughs". And the story started in 2015, with the plant varieties that the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, ministries and branches helped Son La to research, develop varieties and create stable crops. From there, Son La has learned a lesson in organizing agricultural production.

At the same time, with the high determination of the Son La Provincial Leadership and demonstrated by Conclusion 121 - developing crops on sloping land. In particular, directly fruit trees, to convert short-term crops, ineffective food crops to fruit trees; Focus on developing the province's existing industrial crops on a stable scale, in parallel with fruit trees.

Son La successfully develops crops on sloping land.

Since then, Son La has had 83,000 hectares of fruit trees, 22,000 hectares of Arabica coffee trees, 10,000 hectares of sugarcane, 42,000 hectares of cassava and other crop products in the province. From that stable production scale, Son La has followed the direction of expanding and developing agriculture towards large-scale commodity production, associated with a large market. Therefore, Son La province has focused on developing a production chain for fruit trees.

Son La has developed very well varieties such as: mango, longan, avocado, dragon fruit, plum... At the same time, it has developed new varieties such as: strawberry, golden star apple... Along with that, it is promoting and introducing products in depth. The province has promoted and introduced commercial products, participated in many product promotion programs of the Ministry of Industry and Trade in domestic and foreign markets, participated in international fairs and exhibitions, put products on international flights, put products in supermarkets, retail systems, organized weeks of goods, agricultural weeks nationwide..."Through that, Son La has promoted and introduced its strong products. We also learned experiences and lessons to increasingly organize production better, bring out the best quality products to meet tastes, ensuring the health of consumers", Mr. Nguyen Thanh Cong shared.

Up to now, Son La's agricultural products and fruits have reached 21 countries and territories.

Up to now, many products of Son La have met foreign standards, competitive enough with products of international competitors. Many fruits of Son La are present in many large markets, such as plums to France, Netherlands...; mangoes to the US market. Up to now, agricultural products - fruits of Son La have reached 21 countries and territories.

Another story is about the typical Arabica coffee product. Son La has focused on developing this product with a proportion of more than 40% of Vietnam. Son La aims at deeply processed products and building OCOP products such as: Bich Thao coffee achieving 5 stars as an OCOP product, introducing a Cascara tea line processed from ripe coffee pods into tea and Cascara tea products are very popular in the US and European markets.

In addition, other industrial crops such as tea, cassava starch, and sugarcane of Son La are all focused on developing production areas. In the future, Son La will develop cassava starch processing factories, linear flour processing factories, vegetable processing factories,

In fact, one of the breakthrough solutions in developing agricultural production in Son La province is to focus on developing typical products associated with tourism development.

Son La has created typical product areas such as Na Ca plum area, apricot area, Moc Chau production areas... Right from the time the trees sprout leaves and bloom, they attract tourists to experience the immense scenery with plum and apricot flowers... In addition to developing agricultural production associated with developing agricultural tourism, it is also necessary to associate with high-tech science applications, improving the quality of the e-commerce system.

Attracting investment in processing

 Based on its potential and advantages, over the past years, Son La province has always focused on developing agriculture in a specialized direction with high economic value, associated with processing and export industry.

Accordingly, in the first phase, Son La introduced fruit varieties into production, such as: longan, mango, plum, passion fruit, avocado, crispy persimmon, orange, grapefruit... "When we had a good production area and produced quality agricultural products, through market research to grasp trends, Son La clearly realized that if we did not implement clean production processes, the products would not meet export standards and market tastes. Therefore, we have gone deep into clean production and improved product quality", Mr. Cong shared.

At the same time, in the process of organizing and implementing production, Son La pays great attention to building pure growing areas, concentrated production areas for each type of crop and managing the production process, growing areas that meet the standards; creating areas, managing areas, planning growing areas and monitoring are very important issues for crops.

In particular, determined to increase the added value of products and eliminate the problem of product surplus, the situation of "good harvest, low price" when being forced to lower prices, Son La has sought and implemented many solutions to attract investment in the processing industry. The Standing Committee of Son La Provincial Party Committee has directed that by all means, large processing factories must be attracted. Up to now, there have been many factories such as Song Lam Fertilizer Factory, Song Lam Coffee Factory, DOVECO Vegetable and Fruit Processing Center with products from soybeans, spinach, sweet corn, mango, passion fruit, etc. From these processing factory systems, Son La has basically consumed all agricultural products in the crop years, solving the problem of seasonality and output. "The processing industry will contribute to solving the seasonal problem and, more importantly, increase income, create jobs for workers, and build a sustainable production chain. In 2024, Son La will continue to deeply process products and create OCOP products, thereby contributing to the development of sustainable agriculture...", the Vice Chairman of the Son La Provincial People's Committee emphasized.

Not stopping there, in the future, with the goal of building Son La into an agricultural processing center of the Northwest region, this province will continue to attract factories processing dried fruits and cassava starch; upgrading to produce sugar products and production chains linking with farmers... "Son La recommends to the Government, ministries and central agencies to build a regional linkage mechanism. This will contribute significantly to the economic development of the Northwest region. Because if the factory is located in Son La and can use raw materials from Dien Bien and Lai Chau, that factory will develop very stably and will create a very good leverage for the regions in the Northwest", Mr. Cong suggested.

Export efforts to reach 186 million USD in 2024

In 2024, Son La province strives for the value of exported goods to reach 196.1 million USD, an increase of 5% over the previous year. Of which, agricultural and food products exported to reach 186.8 million USD, an increase of nearly 5.2%.

As for fruits, with 84,160 hectares of fruits in 2024, Son La clearly identifies: longan, mango, plum, dragon fruit, hawthorn... as key products to support consumption, support processing and export. According to statistics, Son La province is currently maintaining nearly 220 growing area codes and 10 packaging facility codes, of which 211 export codes are to markets: China, Australia, the United States... with an area of ​​over 3,000 hectares. At the same time, it has issued certification labels for a series of typical products such as: Song Ma longan, Son La longan, Son La pineapple, Son La mango, Son La dragon fruit, Son La plum.../.

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