Protecting the brand and raising the value of Tra My cinnamon

A golden age

Cinnamon is a medicinal plant associated with the typical traditional cultural life of ethnic minorities and the main income source of the Cor, Cadong, Xe Dang, Bh’noong, etc. ethnic people in Bac Tra My district (Quang Nam). Tra My cinnamon, known as "Cao Son Ngoc Que", has a higher essential oil content than cinnamon in other regions, so it is favored in domestic and foreign markets.

In traditional medicine, cinnamon is mentioned as one of the four great medicines: Ginseng – Velvet Antler – Cinnamon - Aconite. Particularly, Tra My cinnamon is evaluated on par with Agarwood, Pearl, etc. and is one of the precious products with an extremely high value. In this mountainous district, cinnamon trees not only provide raw materials for medicine, food, and handicrafts but also contribute to increasing forest cover, maintaining soil and water, preventing landslides, and protecting the ecological environment.

Mr. Pham Viet Tich, Director of the Quang Nam Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said that despite such high value, in the process of existence and development, Tra My cinnamon also encountered difficulties and challenges, especially in the late 80s and 90s of the 20th century.

Under the pressure of market demand and economic development requirements, some mistakes and shortcomings in the organization and implementation of guidelines and policies to support the development of cinnamon varieties and material areas have appeared. Especially subjective, hasty thoughts of wishing to develop quickly without paying attention to the sustainability factor; developing according to feelings and not based on scientific and practical grounds.

Accordingly, the unique properties and quality of Cao Son Ngoc Que can only be obtained by the people of the Tra My land area, with their traditional cultural characteristics, long-standing planting and care techniques, and skills and techniques of processing cinnamon bark. The value of Tra My cinnamon comes from the original variety grown on sites with specific climate and soil conditions suitable for its growth and development cycles.

"Once upon a time, the value and long-standing reputation of Tra My cinnamon were not respected and kept properly. As a result, much of the land where Tra My cinnamon should have been developed has been replaced by outside cinnamon varieties, which were strongly introduced to Quang Nam in those years.

As a consequence, we did not increase the production of Tra My cinnamon to meet the increasing market demand in terms of quantity and quality, but only increased the production of other cinnamon types with lower quality values. The price of cinnamon is progressively decreasing, and the lives of cinnamon growers face many difficulties," said Mr. Pham Viet Tich.

Creating conditions to attract enterprises’ investment

Facing that situation and stemming from the need for Tra My cinnamon conservation, the Quang Nam Department of Science and Technology implemented the project "Management and development of Tra My geographical indications for cinnamon products of Quang Nam province". In addition, in 2011 and 2015, respectively, the Intellectual Property Office of Viet Nam (Ministry of Science and Technology) granted a certificate of geographical indication registration for Quang Nam’s Tra My cinnamon product and cinnamon bark product with their own logo.

On this basis, Quang Nam province has also issued decisions and resolutions to support the conservation and development of Tra My cinnamon in the area in the 2018–2025 period. Bac Tra My district has also submitted to the district People's Council a resolution on this content for the 2021–2025 period, with a vision to 2030. The whole district strives to maintain and freshly plant 3,000 ha of cinnamon by 2025 and 7,000 ha of cinnamon by 2030.

Up to the present time, Bac Tra My district has more than 2,000 ha of cinnamon (excluding small and intercropping areas). The average annual output is about 100–200 tons of cinnamon bark. Most recently, the exploiting output in 2022 reached over 400 to 500 tons. However, by-products such as twigs, branches, and leaves have not been fully taken advantage of because cinnamon-exploiting areas have difficult transportation, long transportation time, and high costs.

Along with that, this locality also has four cooperatives and approximately 10 business establishments specializing in producing more than 50 products from cinnamon belonging to five product groups under the One Commune One Product program in the 2021–2025 period, including: Food group; Beverage group; Group of medicinal herbs and products from medicinal herbs; Group of handicrafts; Community tourism service group.

Mr. Thai Hoang Vu, Chairman of the Bac Tra My District People's Committee, said that, determining the goal of developing cinnamon products in a sustainable way, the district has directed relevant departments and divisions to gradually build a set of cinnamon development processes according to the growing methods. The processes ensure standards from the stage of determining planting areas, seedlings, care, pest and disease control, harvesting, processing, and preserving products and goods up to standards for each domestic and international market segment.

"Besides, we also promote investment promotion and introduce the potential of cinnamon via fairs, forums, commercial activities, the Tra My Cinnamon Festival, etc. The district also creates open mechanisms, minimizes the time to handle administrative formalities, and ensures quickness in attracting investment for domestic and foreign enterprises to survey and invest in the cinnamon development.

We have worked with many companies, such as Que Tra My Company in Da Nang and Aroma360 Technology JSC, on planting and processing cinnamon essential oil, handicraft products, etc. We also created conditions for enterprises to export Tra My cinnamon products to traditional markets in Eastern Europe, Russia, and China, develop new markets in Thailand, Singapore, and Japan, and access other markets in Europe and America," said Mr. Thai Hoang Vu.

According to Mr. Vu, in addition to promoting the image, the district also pays attention to the issue of improving the competitiveness of Tra My cinnamon products on the market by improving quality and creating a distinction through production technology innovation. In particular, give special priority to the deep processing of cinnamon products because it will create a value that is 5 to 10 times higher than the preliminary processing and supply of traditional raw cinnamon materials.

"Currently, an output of 400 tons of cinnamon bark/year has brought Bac Tra My about USD 1.2 million in foreign currency value. The average profit is estimated at VND 75 million/ton of cinnamon bark. When the processing and production of cinnamon products, taking advantage of cinnamon branches, leaves, and wood, innovating production technology, and determining cinnamon material areas become stable, the income will reach hundreds of billions of dollars per year. In the coming time, Tra My cinnamon will be a key economic field of the locality, contributing to improving lives and building new rural areas in the district," said Mr. Thai Hoang Vu, Chairman of the Bac Tra My District People's Committee.