Over the past period, Son La has taken very new, systematic, and groundbreaking approaches to gradually elevate its strong agricultural sector to a new level, thereby contributing to the overall development of the province.

From plant varieties grown on sloping land…

Alongside the task of attracting investment to build deep processing plants, the entire political system of Son La has joined forces, contributing alongside the business community and cooperatives to build brands and find markets for agricultural products, especially fruit. Son La will continue to develop raw material areas, issue and maintain planting area codes, and link supply chains, as these are the "passports" for Son La's agricultural products to reach the world.

Speaking to a VTV Times reporter, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Cong, Vice Chairman of the Son La Provincial People's Committee and the province's top agricultural leader, proudly stated: "Son La's agriculture has made remarkable breakthroughs." The story began in 2015 with crop varieties researched and developed by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and other ministries and agencies, creating stable crop production. From then on, Son La learned valuable lessons in organizing agricultural production.

At the same time, with the strong determination of the Son La Provincial leadership, as demonstrated by Conclusion 121 - developing crops on sloping land, particularly fruit trees, the province focused on converting inefficient short-term and food crops to fruit tree cultivation; and concentrating on developing the province's existing industrial crops on a stable scale, alongside fruit trees.

Son La has successfully developed 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 crops throughout the province. Building on this stable production scale, Son La is moving towards expanding and developing agriculture towards large-scale commodity production, linked to large markets. Therefore, Son La province has focused on developing a production chain for fruit trees.

Son La has successfully developed varieties such as mangoes, longan, avocados, dragon fruit, and plums… Simultaneously, it has developed new varieties such as strawberries and golden star apples… This is coupled with in-depth promotion and introduction of products. The province is actively promoting and introducing commercial products, participating in many product promotion programs of the Ministry of Industry and Trade in domestic and foreign markets, participating in international trade fairs and exhibitions, bringing products on international flights, introducing products into supermarkets and retail systems, and organizing agricultural product weeks and events nationwide. "Through these efforts, Son La has successfully promoted its strong products. We have also learned valuable lessons to better organize production, producing the best quality products to meet consumer demand and ensure consumer health," Mr. Nguyen Thanh Cong shared.

To date, agricultural products and fruits from Son La have reached 21 countries and territories.

To date, many products from Son La have met international standards and are competitive with products from international rivals. Many Son La fruits are present in major markets, such as plums to France and the Netherlands; and mangoes to the US market. As of now, agricultural products and fruits from Son La have reached 21 countries and territories.

Another story concerns the distinctive Arabica coffee product. Son La has focused on developing this product, aiming for a market share of over 40% of Vietnam's total. Son La is targeting deep processing and developing OCOP (One Commune One Product) products such as Bich Thao coffee, which achieved a 5-star OCOP rating, and the introduction of a Cascara tea processing line using the husks of ripe coffee cherries, resulting in Cascara tea that is highly favored by the US and European markets.

In addition, other industrial crops such as tea, cassava starch, and sugarcane in Son La are being developed in concentrated production areas. Son La plans to develop cassava starch processing plants, linear flour processing plants, and vegetable processing plants.

In fact, one of the groundbreaking solutions in the development of agricultural production in Son La province is to focus on developing distinctive products linked to tourism development.

Son La has successfully developed distinctive product areas such as the Na Ca plum growing region, the apricot growing region, and the production areas of Moc Chau… From the moment the trees sprout leaves and bloom, they attract tourists to experience the vast landscapes with plum and apricot blossoms… In addition to developing agricultural production in conjunction with agro-tourism, it is also necessary to link it with the application of high-tech science and technology and improve the quality of the e-commerce system.

Attracting investment in processing

 Based on its potential and advantages, over the years, Son La province has consistently focused on developing agriculture in a specialized direction, with high economic value, linked to processing industries and exports.

Accordingly, in the initial phase, Son La introduced fruit tree varieties into production, such as longan, mango, plum, passion fruit, avocado, persimmon, orange, pomelo... "Once we had established good production areas and produced quality agricultural products, through market research to understand trends, Son La realized that if we did not implement clean production processes, the products would not meet export standards and market demands. Therefore, we have focused on clean production and improving product quality," Mr. Cong shared.

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

In particular, determined to increase the added value of products and eliminate the problem of product surplus and the "bumper harvest, low prices" situation caused by price manipulation, Son La has sought and implemented many solutions to attract investment in the processing industry. The Standing Committee of the Son La Provincial Party Committee has directed that all measures must be taken to attract large processing plants. To date, many factories have been established, such as the Song Lam Fertilizer Plant, the Song Lam Coffee Plant, and the DOVECO Fruit and Vegetable Processing Center, processing products from soybeans, spinach, sweet corn, mangoes, passion fruit, etc. From these processing plant systems, Son La has basically consumed all of its agricultural products in each harvest season, solving the problems of seasonality and production volume. "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 introduce products into deep processing and create OCOP products, thereby contributing to the development of sustainable agriculture...", the Vice Chairman of the Son La Provincial People's Committee emphasized.

Furthermore, with the goal of developing Son La into a center for agricultural product processing in the Northwest region, the province will continue to attract factories for processing dried fruits and cassava starch; upgrade facilities to produce sugar products; and establish production linkages with farmers... "Son La proposes to the Government and central ministries and agencies to build a regional linkage mechanism. This will contribute significantly to the economic development of the Northwest region. Because if a 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.

Efforts are being made to achieve export targets of $186 million in 2024.

In 2024, Son La province aims for an export value of goods reaching US$196.1 million, a 5% increase compared to the previous year. Of this, agricultural and food products are expected to account for US$186.8 million, an increase of nearly 5.2%.

Regarding fruit, with 84,160 hectares of fruit orchards in 2024, Son La province has clearly identified longan, mango, plum, dragon fruit, hawthorn, etc., as key products to support consumption, processing, and export. According to statistics, Son La province currently maintains nearly 220 planting area codes and 10 packaging facility codes, of which 211 codes are for export to markets such as China, Australia, and the United States, covering an area of ​​over 3,000 hectares. Simultaneously, it has granted certification marks for a series of characteristic products such as Song Ma longan, Son La longan, Son La pineapple, Son La mango, Son La dragon fruit, Son La plum, etc.

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