Sugarcane is transported to the factory within 48 hours of harvest – a period that determines the quality and efficiency of sugar extraction.

Right from the beginning of the season, Son La Sugarcane Joint Stock Company sent a technical team to the sugarcane growing area in Hua Phan to instruct people on proper harvesting techniques, loading and storage to ensure that the quality of sugarcane is not affected during long-distance transportation.

At the same time, the company also supports specialized machinery and trains people to operate effectively, contributing to improving harvest productivity.

Notably, to ensure that sugarcane is brought to the processing plant within 48 hours of harvest – a key factor affecting the quality of extracted sugar – Son La province has directed functional forces at Chieng Khuong border gate (Song Ma district) to implement a mechanism for quick customs clearance and shorten administrative procedures.

Specifically, the staff of the Department of Cultivation and Plant Protection of Son La province arranged to be on duty 24/7 to collect sugarcane samples as soon as the transport vehicle arrived at the border gate. The samples were then urgently transferred to the Post-Import Plant Quarantine Center 1 for analysis of food safety indicators and detection of harmful organisms. Thanks to the synchronous and proactive coordination between the parties, the time for inspection and issuance of plant quarantine certificates was shortened to only 8 to 10 hours - much faster than the normal process.

Up to now, Son La Sugarcane Joint Stock Company has purchased more than 3,000 tons of raw sugarcane from Hua Phan province, with a total transaction value exceeding 4 billion VND. The sugarcane products are assessed to be of high quality, with good sugar reserves, meeting the factory's input standards.

The company representative said that this is the second consecutive year that the program of purchasing sugarcane from Hua Phan has been implemented and will continue to maintain and expand the scale in the following crop years. For Son La province, this activity also has great significance in strengthening the close and trustworthy cooperative relationship between Vietnam and Laos - especially in the field of agriculture and sustainable rural development.

Not only stopping at economic benefits, this program also contributes to creating a foundation for developing inter-regional agricultural value chains, promoting border trade, and is a vivid demonstration of the effectiveness of local diplomacy in the period of deep integration.