Currently, Son La province has 82,626 hectares of fruit trees and hawthorn trees; of which, 73,026 hectares are fruit trees, 9,600 hectares are hawthorn trees. Some crops with large areas and output include: 13,276 hectares of plums, output of 85,985 tons; 19,853 hectares of longan, output of over 66,000 tons; 19,578 hectares of mango, output of over 71,500 tons; 1,098 hectares of custard apple, output of about 6,645 tons and 805 hectares of strawberries, output of over 7,800 tons... Through agricultural product consumption promotion activities, by November 20, the whole province had consumed 348,653 tons of fruit, estimated at 93% of output, with an estimated value of over 5,310 billion VND. At this time, some fruit trees have finished harvesting, such as: strawberries, plums, mangoes, longans. Farmers are focusing on harvesting custard apples, bananas and citrus trees.

Booth displaying agricultural products of Yen Chau district at the conference organized by the Provincial Farmers' Association.

In addition to fresh fruit consumption, the province also has 17 factories and 543 agricultural processing facilities; each year, the processing capacity ranges from several tens to thousands of tons of mango, longan, coffee, cassava, pineapple, plum, sweet corn, banana, macadamia, hawthorn, vegetables, tubers, etc., contributing to reducing the pressure on fresh fruit consumption and increasing the value of agricultural products. Currently, the province's fruit products are also purchased by enterprises and cooperatives, processed into dried fruit products, crispy dried fruit, fruit juice, longan juice; products are purchased, consumed domestically and exported by Bich Thi Joint Stock Company, Hung Yen province; FUSA Organic Agriculture Joint Stock Company, Hai Duong province; Danko Import-Export Joint Stock Company; Minh Khai Import-Export Trading Joint Stock Company, Lao Cai province; Hanoi Organic Food Limited Liability Company, etc.

From 2021 to present, Son La province has attracted investment in 11 large-scale agricultural processing projects, of which 8 projects have been granted new investment policies. In addition, the province is appraising and approving the investment policy of 1 more project; continuing to appraise and submit for approval the policy of 2 projects, including: Instant cereal and dried fruit factory project of VFI Investment Trade Production Joint Stock Company; Solas fruit packaging and processing factory project of Bao Lam Son La Joint Stock Company.

Agricultural processing factories operate effectively, constantly developing raw material areas according to the chain, such as: Son La Sugarcane Joint Stock Company signed contracts to produce and consume sugarcane with nearly 10,000 households; enterprises and cooperatives joined in the production and consumption of coffee with 12,000 households; Moc Chau Dairy Cow Breeding Joint Stock Company linked with over 510 households in livestock farming and hundreds of households growing corn, serving the TMR Factory...

Ms. Nguyen Hang Nga, Director of Doveco Son La Vegetable and Fruit Processing Center, said: The company has 1,461 hectares of raw material area for processing, reaching 99% of the plan. Since the beginning of the year, the unit has purchased over 26,000 tons of agricultural products for processing, including: 2,755 tons of sweet corn, 1,163 tons of spinach, 2,537 tons of pink banana, 15,785 tons of mango, 2,180 tons of passion fruit, 1,547 tons of vegetable soybeans, 63 tons of longan.

Coffee processing factory of Phuc Sinh Son La Joint Stock Company.

After more than 6 years of operation, Phuc Sinh Son La Joint Stock Company purchases and processes coffee and invests in a new product processing line. Mr. Vu Viet Thang, Director of the company, informed: The company has put the Cacara tea processing line into operation, including: Food standard fruit washing system, peeling, UV drying; multi-function cold drying system, ensuring the preservation of flavor and color; automatic packaging of square filter bags, triangular filter bags, designed capacity of 0.5 tons of tea/production batch. Previously, all coffee fruit shells were used as fertilizer or fuel, when the Cascara tea production line was put into operation, it created a special tea product with high economic value and was welcomed by the European market.

Processing honey coffee of Aratay Coffee Cooperative, Chieng Chung commune, Mai Son district.

Mr. Nguyen Van Bac, Director of the Department of Industry and Trade, said: In 2024, the production index of the entire industrial sector is estimated to increase by 28.3%, of which: The processing and manufacturing industry is estimated to increase by 5.6%. Some processed industrial products are estimated to increase compared to the same period, such as: Preliminary processed tea increased by 5.36%; cassava starch increased by over 20%; sterilized fresh milk increased by over 5.71%;... The expected production value of agricultural processing industry is 5,360 billion VND, an increase of more than 8% compared to 2023.

Continuing to attract businesses to the agricultural sector, on August 22, the People's Committee of Son La province issued a Decision approving the outline, tasks and budget for the Project to establish the Son La High-Tech Agricultural Zone, located in Sub-area 12, Tan Lap Commune, Moc Chau District, with a minimum scale of 50 hectares. Along with that, on August 30, the People's Committee of Son La province issued a Decision approving the outline, tasks and budget for the Project to build Son La into an Agricultural Product Processing Center, currently being submitted to the Prime Minister for approval. The Project is expected to open up opportunities, attract investment in agriculture and rural areas, develop preliminary processing and processing of agricultural products in the province.

According to: Son La Newspaper