On Hon Heo Mountain in Khanh Hoa province, south-central Vietnam, a farmer self-taught his way to cultivating the native medicinal plant 'xao tam phan (xáo tam phân)' -- once nearly harvested to extinction -- and grew it into a production area of over 40 hectares of contract farming. The lead is Tran Ba Ninh, head of Ba Ninh and also chairman of the province's medicinal plant association. It is a case of re-arranging a crude drug that had relied on wild harvesting into a supply system that turns seedlings from seed.
For Japanese buyers handling medicinal plants and functional ingredients, this story connects directly to the sourcing design of 'from where, and how stably, can raw material be drawn.' While a transient boom in a wild species ends in depletion, only the production areas that succeed at cultivation remain as trading partners. We trace that dividing line through one farmer's 15 years.
He turned a Hon Heo Mountain endemic species into a production area that turns from seed
Xao tam phan is a native medicinal plant that grows wild around Hon Heo Mountain in Khanh Hoa province. It is known as being said to ease declining liver function, and demand was especially strong in northern Vietnam's markets. Ninh developed 10 products from the plant's leaves, stems and roots, three of which earned 4 stars in the national regional-product certification 'OCOP.' He broadened the range of processing into powders, tea bags and concentrated extracts, breaking out of the stage of relying on wild harvesting of raw material.
In Vietnam, moves to convert medicinal plants that have hit the limit of wild harvesting into production areas farmed in fields are occurring in various places. In Quang Ninh province, the medicinal root 'gie len (dia lien)' is being an attempt to move it from forest to field and build a production area is advancing, and in Lang Son province there is a move to build a crude-drug production area with medicinal gardenia that, once planted, can be harvested for a long time. Ninh's case is a forerunner of these.
The 2011 harvesting boom brought overharvesting and depletion
The turning point was 2011. In April that year, a story spread that a terminal liver-cancer patient had recovered dramatically using this wild plant, and demand overheated. By July, harvesters numbering in the hundreds rushed to the mountain, and illegal digging thinned the resource all at once. People swarm a pricey medicinal herb and the wild habitat is stripped bare -- a pattern repeated with Vietnam's medicinal plants.
Ninh moved right after that, in September 2011. He gathered up fallen branches and roots on the mountain and set about propagation by cuttings. He cut up empty instant-noodle containers, numbered them, and recorded the days to rooting by plot for 'old branches' and 'young branches,' so the account goes. The core of this case is that he began cultivation not from a specialized research institution but from the accumulation of the tools at hand and observation.
From cuttings to sowing: tracing 15 years of trial and error in numbers
With cuttings, handling live branches meant continued shrinkage and losses. Once the plants began bearing fruit in three to four years, Ninh switched to seed collection. Seedlings grown from seed are tolerant of drought, and he has now abandoned cuttings entirely, supplying about 200,000 seedlings a year by sowing alone. Lining up the initial conditions of cultivation with the current position shows how the production area built up.
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Start of cultivation | September 2011 (began with cuttings) |
| Switch in propagation method | After plants fruit in three to four years, shifted to sowing and discontinued cuttings |
| Annual seedling supply | about 200,000 seedlings (seed-derived) |
| Own growing area | About 70 ha |
| Contract-farming area | over 40 ha (multiple districts) |
| Number of products | 10 types (of which 3 products are OCOP 4-star) |
| Employees and monthly income | 9 people / 5.5 million to 12 million dong per month (about JPY 32,000 to 71,000) |
Amounts are reported values concerning Ba Ninh. Yen conversions are rough estimates based on a guide of JPY 1 = about 170 dong.
He grew it into a 40-ha contract production area with free seedling distribution and a purchase guarantee
From 2012, Ninh handed seedlings to local farmers who wanted to grow the plant and expanded planting by promising to buy their harvest. On top of his own roughly 70 hectares, he formed over 40 hectares of contract farming with farmers in districts such as Hoa Tan and Dong Ninh Hoa, drawing farmers in to build up supply. The design pairing in-house seedling production with a purchase guarantee aims to erase in advance farmers' anxieties over price and sales channels when stepping into a new crop.
The business extends to processing and employment too. He pays nine employees monthly wages of 5.5 million to 12 million dong and has broadened products into powders, teas and concentrated extracts. Since 2014 he has also continued an effort to give products free of charge to low-income patients suffering from liver, uterine, ovarian, colorectal and breast cancer. What distinguishes it from mere medicinal-herb gathering is that it runs everything -- from wild harvesting of raw material to cultivation, processing and giving back to the community -- as a single business.
What this production-area model shows for Japanese medicinal-plant sourcing
Japan relies heavily on imports for crude-drug and medicinal-plant raw materials, and diversifying sources and domestic cultivation have long been issues. Ninh's path shows three conditions that cannot be skipped in turning a wild-dependent material into stable sourcing.
Transient demand does not remain in a production area unless paired with cultivation
The 2011 boom only drew harvesters to the mountain and left the wild habitat thin. What remained after the boom passed was only the side that had built a system to turn seedlings from seed. Before jumping at the novelty of a functional ingredient, determine whether that ingredient can be reproduced in a field -- this is the first gate for the sourcing side.
In-house seedling production governs supply volume and quality variation
Switching from cuttings to seed collection and securing 200,000 seedlings a year in-house supports over 40 hectares of contract farming. A production area whose seedling origin is unsettled is hard to read in both volume and quality. When the Japanese side draws a new medicinal material too, who holds the seedling stock governs price and stability. Orchid seedlings that had depended on Taiwan the case of bringing production in-house to 200,000 a year in a domestic lab likewise, the more a production area holds the upstream seedling stock, the firmer its negotiating base.
OCOP certification and processing prevent raw-material price collapse
Keep selling raw medicinal herbs and the price falls as supply grows. Ninh built a brand with processing into 10 products and OCOP 4 stars, securing a way of selling one step removed from the raw-material market. When Japanese manufacturers source overseas medicinal plants too, the degree of processing and certification work for both quality assurance and price stability.
Practical points functional-ingredient buyers should confirm
- Source of seed: Confirm whether seedlings are from wild harvesting or from in-house seed collection and raising. A production area that can stably supply seed-derived seedlings is easy to read in volume and quality.
- Reality of contract farming: Grasp whether there is a purchase guarantee, the contract area, and the number of participating farmers. In Ninh's case the structure is over 40 ha of contract on top of his own roughly 70 ha.
- Stage of processing and certification: Whether it can supply as processed goods such as powders, extracts and teas, and whether it holds certification such as OCOP, changes the degree of independence from the raw-material market.
- Handling of efficacy claims: Do not transcribe the health effects spoken of locally straight into Japanese promotion. From the standpoint of the Act against Unjustifiable Premiums and Misleading Representations and the Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Act, keep the discussion to quality and specifications as a material.
What it means to turn a wild-gathered medicinal herb into a tradeable production area
What Ninh did was re-arrange one medicinal herb that was vanishing on the mountain into a system that turns seedlings from seed, contracts with farmers, makes processed goods and gives back to the community. Not flashy technology, but 15 years of accumulation that began with counting rooting in empty noodle containers gave rise to a production area of over 40 hectares. If Japanese buyers put a Vietnamese medicinal plant up as a sourcing candidate, first ask about the origin of the seedlings and the reality of contract farming. A wild boom cannot be bought, but a cultivated production area becomes a trading partner. This case shows that line clearly.
