Illegally imported ginseng masquerading as Ngoc Linh and Lai Chau ginseng has adversely affected Vietnamese farmers and businesses.

Vietnam is striving to turn its ginseng into an international brand product with an aim to becoming a major ginseng producer of the world by 2045.

Ngoc Linh ginseng, considered Vietnam’s national treasure, is a rare medicinal herb, known as the king of ginseng species. Bulbs of Ngoc Linh ginseng, old and rare, are worth up to billions of dong.

The establishment of a ginseng association would benefit ginseng farmers, and more importantly, create favorable conditions to develop production of Vietnam ginseng.

There are about 3 million ginseng plants in the district to date, covering a farming area of 810ha.

Foreign experts conducted a field trip to inspect technical and financial support for a project on the sustainable development of Ngoc Linh ginseng under forest canopy in the central province of Quang Nam from February 26-27.

Vietnam plans to grow 24,000 hectares of ginseng by 2030 and become the world’s largest ginseng producer by 2045. This is part of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s (MARD) ginseng development program to 2030.

Ngoc Linh ginseng was first discovered in 1973 in a forest on Ngoc Linh Mountain, located between the provinces of Kon Tum and Quang Nam, by a team of four pharmacists.

Ngoc Linh ginseng deserves the "National treasure" title, and it is necessary to strongly promote the role of this treasure in improving people's livelihoods, President Nguyen Xuan Phuc said .

Quang Nam authorities and the Vietnam Administration of Forestry has set a goal to cultivate as much as 200,000 hectare of panax ginseng and promote it to the international market.

A market displaying Ngoc Linh ginseng, the first of its kind in Vietnam, is set to open in both in-person and online forms in order to honour the ginseng as Vietnamese treasure.

Mr. Nguyen Manh Tuan has been with the Tak Ngo ginseng garden in Tra Linh Commune (Nam Tra My District) in Quang Nam Province for seven years. He has spent more time in the garden than with his family.

Developing medicinal areas and growing Ngoc Linh ginseng, which is also called “Vietnamese ginseng”, is one of the key strategies of My Hanh Group Joint Stock Company (MHG).

Quang Nam province has submitted to the Government the "National program to develop Ngoc Linh ginseng until 2045" project with the goal of developing a ginseng production industry.

Ngoc Linh ginseng lives under the canopy of old forests, with a forest coverage level of 70-80 percent and temperature of below 25oC. Businesses are now joining forces with locals to grow Ngoc Linh ginseng there.

Two new investors – Nutifood and Thien Nhan hospital – have put their footprint in the development and production of thousands of hectares of Ngoc Linh ginseng farms in the central province, promising a worldwide brand for the national product.

The Ngoc Linh Ginseng or Vietnamese Ginseng Museum opened in HCM City boasts over 400 varieties of the healing plant called a national treasure.

As Tet Holiday nears and the harvest season comes, the people living near Ngoc Linh Mountain, Kon Tum Province, will start hunting for the rats which often eat ginseng to treat visitors and as an offering to ancestors.

A group of men neatly wrapped themselves in three layers of clothing in the middle of a summer night in July, quietly chatting. They each had a cup of hot tea.