Company proposes 1,200-hectare Ngoc Linh ginseng project in Da Nang highlands

THACO AGRI has proposed a large-scale, high-tech project to grow and process Ngoc Linh ginseng and medicinal herbs across about 1,206 hectares in Tra Linh and Tra Tap communes in Da Nang.

Da Nang’s Finance Department said it received the company’s application on Sept. 4. The proposal calls for a concentrated agricultural production and processing zone for Ngoc Linh ginseng and herbs including cardamom, supported by shared infrastructure serving production and processing across provinces or regions.

The plan includes growing and conserving Ngoc Linh ginseng through industrial methods, in greenhouses and beneath forest canopies. It also proposes research, seedling production, tissue culture and grafting, along with forestry plantations that would create shade for medicinal herbs. Suitable livestock, including deer and honeybees, would be raised under an integrated circular model.

The project would process ginseng and other herbs into raw materials, semi-processed and refined medicinal products, and value-added goods. It would also produce growing media, organic fertilizer and microbial fertilizer, and trade in agricultural inputs, live animals, ginseng, herbs and livestock products. The proposed operating term is 50 years from the date the state allocates or leases the land. The company seeks approval of the investment policy together with approval as investor, without a land-use auction or investor-selection tender.

The Ministry of Health’s Institute of Drug Materials describes Ngoc Linh ginseng, or Panax vietnamensis, as a narrowly endemic Vietnamese species found mainly in the Ngoc Linh mountains of Da Nang and Quang Ngai at elevations of 1,500 to 2,100 meters. Vietnam’s planted area currently totals about 3,700 hectares, including roughly 1,500 hectares in Da Nang and 300,000 preserved original plants. Da Nang aims to develop about 8,400 hectares by 2030.