Essence of highland villages: [3] Nghinh Tuong's precious star anise, cinnamon fragrance

Na Hau transforms its life

Nghinh Tuong remains one of the most disadvantaged communes in Thai Nguyen province, despite being located just over 50 kilometers from the provincial administrative center. Following the administrative merger, the headquarters of Nghinh Tuong Commune have become rather cramped. Mr. Ha Tuan Phuong, Secretary of the Commune Party Committee prior to May 2026 (now reassigned to a leadership position in another commune), began his conversation with us by sharing the concerns of a leader overseeing a commune still burdened with many hardships.

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As a quick-witted person, knowing we were reporters from VAN News, Mr. Phuong steered the conversation toward local crops and livestock, which are the commune’s strengths. "The Commune Party Committee has identified agricultural and forestry development as the pathway for local people to escape poverty, with star anise and cinnamon designated as key crops. And to understand more clearly, let’s go to Na Hau hamlet," Mr. Phuong said.

Na Hau hamlet lies several kilometers from the commune center. Since early April, the star anise hills in Na Hau have entered the harvest season. A concrete road winding through mountain ranges led us to Mr. Trieu Van Lieu's house. His newly completed stilt house, topped with bright red tiles, stood out prominently against the surrounding landscape. These days, Mr. Lieu is busy with the star anise harvest. Inside the house and across the yard, sacks of star anise flowers are ready for sale.

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At the beginning of the crop season, star anise flowers were selling for only VND 18,000/kg, slightly lower than in previous years. Yet for Na Hau people, star anise has helped many households escape poverty.

"My house was newly completed mainly thanks to income from selling star anise flowers. With two harvests a year, star anise brings my family around VND 150 million annually," Mr. Lieu shared.

His fate with star anise began in 2003, when a support project enabled his family to plant several hundred trees. In the following years, he continued expanding the plantation annually and now owns more than 2,000 trees.

When he first planted them, Mr. Lieu never imagined that star anise could one day transform his life. In the 2010s, star anise flowers bloomed abundantly, but there were no buyers, leaving flowers scattered beneath the trees. Only in recent years have prices improved, peaking in 2018 when star anise flowers sold for more than VND 30,000/kg.

Mr. Lieu's star anise plantation lies quite close to his house, with some trees with a height of over 20 meters. The ground beneath them is carefully cleared of weeds. Harvesting star anise is not easy. Mr. Lieu takes off his shoes before climbing trees several dozen meters tall, maneuvering through dense branches while picking flowers with one hand and gripping a swinging rope tightly with the other. After nearly half a day of work, he gathers around 30 kg of star anise flowers in a single sack, which he later brings to the commune center to sell to traders in the afternoon.

In addition to star anise, Mr. Lieu's family also owns around 2,000 cinnamon trees that have been planted for more than a decade and are expected to be harvested in the coming years. In recent years, cinnamon bark prices have remained high, and after deducting harvesting costs, he estimates the family could earn several hundred million dong.

Need for deep processing

While Mr. Lieu was harvesting star anise, Head of Na Hau Hamlet Trieu Van Minh was discussing local affairs with Ms. Ma Thi Quyen, Chairwoman of the Nghinh Tuong Commune Farmers' Association.

Mr. Minh told Ms. Quyen that Na Hau residents are expected to earn a fairly good income this year. All 79 households in the hamlet cultivate star anise and cinnamon trees, with some owning several hectares while others have a few hundred trees. Last year, income from star anise and cinnamon enabled many households in the hamlet to build new homes and buy motorbikes, televisions, and refrigerators. The number of poor households also declined significantly.

In recent years, the road running through the hamlet has been paved with concrete, making it easier to transport agricultural products, and traders now come directly to the plantations to purchase goods. However, residents remain concerned that despite earning a relatively stable income, they are still heavily dependent on traders, who decide market prices.

Standing amid the star anise plantation, Mr. Minh suggested to the Chairwoman of the Commune Farmers' Association that local authorities consider supporting villagers with a star anise drying machine. This would allow farmers to avoid selling immediately when traders force prices down, enabling them to dry and store the flowers while waiting for better prices.

In addition, most households still cultivate and care for star anise trees using traditional farming practices, with limited application of scientific and technical advances. As a result, diseases have begun to appear on the plantations, highlighting the urgent need for technical guidance.

Ms. Ma Thi Quyen, Chairwoman of the Nghinh Tuong Commune Farmers' Association, said that Na Hau is mountainous, with very limited rice-growing land, leaving forest-based production as the primary source of income for local residents. The hamlet was also the first in the commune to grow star anise and cinnamon. In recent years, star anise and cinnamon have helped local people improve their incomes, with living standards steadily rising.

Ms. Quyen said that under the Comprehensive Rural Development Plan for Thai Nguyen Province for the 2026–2030 period, Nghinh Tuong commune has been selected as an area for the development of star anise and cinnamon. Na Hau hamlet in particular, along with several other highland villages, possesses climate and soil conditions highly suitable for growing star anise and cinnamon, which have been identified as the commune's two key crops.

However, star anise flowers are currently sold mainly in raw form without pre-processing, so their value is not high. The commune, therefore, hopes to receive attention and support in technology and pre-processing equipment while also seeking to attract businesses to invest in deep processing facilities for local products.

"Nghinh Tuong commune has identified sustainable agricultural development, medicinal plant cultivation, and high-value crop models as key breakthroughs for socio-economic development," Ms. Quyen added.

Following the administrative merger, Nghinh Tuong commune now covers an area of 160 km² with a population of more than 6,500 people. The commune has over 3,000 hectares of production forest land, including around 50 hectares of cinnamon and more than 17 hectares of medicinal plants. Although the commune holds strong potential and advantages for forestry-based economic development, the mountainous terrain continues to pose significant challenges to local livelihoods, with the poverty rate still exceeding 25%.

$1 = VND 26,395 - Source: Vietcombank.