{"id":1270,"date":"2026-06-29T18:32:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T09:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vietnam-agri.com\/industry_news\/dilen-medicinal-root\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T18:32:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T09:32:09","slug":"dilen-medicinal-root","status":"publish","type":"industry_news","link":"https:\/\/vietnam-agri.com\/en\/industry_news\/dilen-medicinal-root\/","title":{"rendered":"From forest to field: Quang Ninh turns the medicinal root \"dia lien,\" limited by wild harvesting, into a cultivated crop"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the mountainous area of Quang Ninh Province in northeastern Vietnam, near the Chinese border, an effort is advancing to cultivate in fields\u2014and build into a regional brand\u2014the medicinal root \"dia lien<\/strong>\" that until now could only be gathered from natural forests. The person behind it is a female agricultural extension officer with 16 years in the field. For Japanese importers and agricultural stakeholders, this is a case that lets you observe the early stage of how Southeast Asian medicinal crops shift from \"gathering from the forest\" to \"managed cultivation.\" If you place importance on the stability of raw-material sourcing and on regional traceability, you will want to keep an eye on such region-forming moves early.<\/p>\n

News summary: a 16-year field extension officer driving the regionalization of a medicinal root<\/h2>\n

The agriculture-and-environment outlet Nong nghiep va Moi truong reported on the career of Nguyen Thi Quynh Trang, an agricultural extension officer in Quang Duc commune, Quang Ninh Province. Trang is introduced as a dedicated field worker who studied agricultural biotechnology at Thai Nguyen University of Agriculture and Forestry and has moved among district technical-service agencies such as Dam Ha and Hai Ha for more than 16 years since 2010.<\/p>\n

According to the article, what she focuses on is spreading the cultivation of dia lien. Dia lien is a medicinal root that originally grows wild in the mountain forests of the border zone, and residents have gathered it by going deep into the forest. But natural-forest resources dwindled year by year, reaching a point where gathering alone was no longer sustainable. So she has steadily spread a shift from a \"gather from the forest\" model to a \"grow in fields\" model in mountain-valley hamlets inhabited by ethnic minorities (such as Ban Cai Phou and Ban Chan Mui).<\/p>\n

Background: what is dia lien, and why the switch to cultivation became urgent<\/h2>\n

Dia lien, scientific name Kaempferia galanga, is a perennial in the ginger family, and its strongly aromatic underground rhizome is used. Known in Japanese as \"ban ukon\" and in the English-speaking world as a relative of galangal, it is a traditional medicinal and spice plant cultivated across Southeast Asia in Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and elsewhere. In Indonesia it is also used in cooking under the name \"kencur.\" It is a material long used in folk practice in Vietnam as well.<\/p>\n

Where regionalization matters here is that the supply structure of the raw material changes. Gathering from mountain forests leaves both volume and quality to nature, and overharvesting exhausts the resource itself. In fact, natural-forest dia lien had been dwindling in this region too. Growing it systematically in fields makes it possible to project harvest volume from the planted area and makes quality easier to standardize. From the standpoint of those handling ingredients for medicinal cuisine and health foods, a supply source for which \"when, how much, and at what quality\" it arrives can be read is far easier to build around than one-off gathering from the forest. This move is the entrance to that.<\/p>\n

Data: reported planted area, output, and price<\/h2>\n

The figures given in the original article are as follows. We note at the outset that all are based on a single outlet's reporting and have not been independently confirmed as official administrative statistics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Item<\/th>\nReported content<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Cultivated area<\/td>\nAbout 10 hectares<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Annual output (fresh root)<\/td>\nOver 200 tonnes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Purchase price<\/td>\nVND 30,000\u201335,000 per kg, and VND 40,000 in peak-demand periods<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Model farmer's 2025 harvest<\/td>\nAbout 10 tonnes of fresh root per household<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Goal<\/td>\nOCOP 3\u20134 star certification as \"Quang Duc dia lien\"<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

To get a feel for the price, converting to yen, VND 30,000 per kg is about 176 yen at a guide of about 170 VND per yen, and VND 40,000 is about 235 yen (on the premise of recalculating at the latest rate at the time of a transaction, since exchange rates fluctuate). A level of a few hundred yen per kg of fresh root falls within an average range for a primary spice or medicinal material. A scale of 10 ha under cultivation and over 200 tonnes a year is, for a village-level region, a stage of starting up, and it is reasonable to read it as a phase of first securing certification and solidifying domestic and regional distribution, rather than large-volume supply premised on export.<\/p>\n

Local and stakeholder reactions: a \"let's try it\" chain beginning to spread<\/h2>\n

The article introduces several voices of residents who took the plunge into cultivation. Phun Thi Dung of Ban Chan Mui is quoted as saying, \"Seeing those who started earlier do well, we followed too. Thanks to the technical guidance, germination was good, it grew well, and it became a solid side income.\"<\/p>\n

Another example cited is the household of Tang San Mui, who is said to have voluntarily expanded planting to 2 hectares even after the project's support period ended. The emergence of farmers who continue even after external subsidies run out is portrayed positively in the article as a sign that this model is shifting from a \"do it because subsidies are available\" stage to a \"continue because it pays\" stage.<\/p>\n

As for the extension officer Trang herself, her work ethic is described: three times a week she is out in the fields from 5:30 in the early morning, and sometimes she is on the move until 11 at night to explain things to residents. The portrayal is that behind the regionalization lies a process in which a single field worker built up trust over time.<\/p>\n

Implications for Japanese importers and agricultural stakeholders<\/h2>\n

There are broadly three things the Japanese side can take from this case.<\/p>\n

Have an eye that distinguishes \"gathered goods\" from \"cultivated goods\"<\/h3>\n

Southeast Asian medicinal roots and spices are a mix of goods gathered from the forest and goods cultivated in fields. For a material like dia lien, where regionalization has only just begun, the origin tends to be patchy from lot to lot. When sourcing, confirming \"gathered or cultivated\" and \"from which hamlet or which cooperative\" makes it easier to read the risk on both quality and supply stability.<\/p>\n

OCOP certification serves as a yardstick for a region's maturity<\/h3>\n

OCOP (One Commune One Product) is a nationwide Vietnamese certification system with a three-tier structure in which 3 stars are evaluated and certified by the district, 4 stars by the province, and 5 stars by the central government. A declaration to aim for 3\u20134 stars is a signal that the region is seeking to be upgraded from \"an individual's field\" to \"an item backed by the administration.\" When searching for import candidates, the OCOP tier is a clue for gauging the region's management level and how far its documentation has progressed.<\/p>\n

With early-stage regions, build the relationship starting from sample evaluation<\/h3>\n

A scale of over 200 tonnes a year is small for immediately signing a substantial export contract. Put the other way, making contact now leaves room to run alongside the region's growth process. A way of proceeding that first checks the aromatic components and drying suitability with small samples and then works out the transaction design\u2014including processing (slice-drying and powdering)\u2014together with the counterpart fits well with such start-up regions.<\/p>\n

Ripple effects on industry and market: the direction shown by the regionalization of medicinal crops<\/h2>\n

The dia lien episode is not a one-off feel-good story but one frame of a larger current underway in Vietnam's mountains: the \"cultivation of forest products.\" The depletion of natural resources and the national policy of capturing added value through certified products overlap, and materials that until now relied on wild gathering are being moved to fields one after another. Quang Ninh Province is a region that holds both border trade and agroforestry products, and as such items increase, its presence as a sourcing destination for medicinal and health-food ingredients will grow little by little.<\/p>\n

From the perspective of Japan's medicinal-cuisine and health-conscious food market, demand continues for medicinal materials whose region can be identified and whose cultivation history can be traced. Following an item from the early stage of regionalization leads to differentiated raw-material sourcing in the future. Note that for medicinal materials including dia lien, expressions that assert efficacy and figures for component content can run afoul of labeling regulations (the Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Act), so when commercializing, it is safest to stick to fact-based appeals such as the material's origin, region, and processing method.<\/p>\n

Practical information and related links<\/h2>\n

Agricultural products and export trends around Quang Ninh Province are covered on an ongoing basis on this site as well. They are worth reading together as comparison material when considering region formation and export routes.<\/p>\n