The issuance and management of planting area codes, packaging facility codes, and testing are considered a “passport” for the province’s agricultural products to target exports. Despite many difficulties in production scale, testing infrastructure, and production organization capacity, the construction and management of planting area codes are being gradually implemented synchronously, creating a foundation to enhance the value of local agricultural products.

In recent years, along with the development of commercial agriculture, Điện Biên has focused on building concentrated production areas for rice, coffee, tea, fruit trees, and macadamia. However, for agricultural products to deeply penetrate domestic and export markets, the requirements for planting area codes, packaging facility codes, and testing facilities have become mandatory conditions. The Department of Agriculture and Environment coordinates with the People’s Committees of communes and wards to review concentrated production areas and key agricultural products.

Up to now, the entire province has granted 16 domestic planting area codes with a total area of 75.6 hectares. Among them are 7 fruit tree planting area codes covering 25.5 hectares in Mường Thanh ward and the communes of Mường Nhà, Thanh Yên, Thanh An, Pú Nhung; 1 tea planting area code covering 16 hectares in Mường Lạn commune; 6 coffee planting area codes covering 9.1 hectares in Mường Ảng and Quài Tở communes; 1 macadamia planting area code covering 15 hectares in Tuần Giáo commune and 1 rice planting area code covering 10 hectares in Mường Lay ward.

In many production areas, being granted a planting area code has contributed to changing people’s awareness of clean agricultural production processes. People are starting to get used to keeping field diaries, using plant protection chemicals according to regulations, and adhering to technical standards. Thào A Giàng, Director of Mường Nhà Pineapple Cooperative, said the cooperative has over 10 hectares of pineapples granted a planting area code. Previously, people mainly produced based on experience, paying little attention to recording or tracing origins. Once granted the planting area code, they were specifically guided from the care stage to harvesting.

Not only helping to standardize the production process, planting area codes also contribute to enhancing the value of agricultural products. Currently, the province is gradually building agricultural production areas applying VietGAP and organic standards, linked to consumption and processing. The entire province currently has more than 4,159 hectares of fruit trees, over 12,000 hectares of macadamia, over 8,000 hectares of coffee, and more than 4,000 hectares of high-quality rice in the Mường Thanh field. This is an important premise for expanding the area of planting zones eligible to be granted planting area codes.

Even so, the implementation process of granting planting area codes in reality still faces many obstacles. The biggest bottleneck today is the small, fragmented production scale. Many crop areas have not met the minimum area requirements prescribed for perennial crops. The production linkage between people, cooperatives, and enterprises lacks tightness, leading to difficulties in maintaining the homogeneity of raw material areas. Besides, the awareness and capacity to implement technical requirements among a segment of people and cooperatives are still limited.

Nguyễn Mỹ Linh, Director of Hương Linh Điện Biên Co., Ltd., stated: “The most difficult thing today is changing the mindset and production habits of the people. To build and maintain a planting area code requires uniformity in the farming process of all participating households. Just one household failing to comply with the regulations can affect the entire raw material area.” According to Nguyễn Mỹ Linh, in the old Tủa Chùa area alone, there are currently more than 600 hectares of ancient Shan Tuyết tea. This represents great potential to develop high-quality tea raw material areas associated with planting area codes, traceability, and exports.

Another reality is that up to now, Điện Biên has not been granted a planting area code for export. Implementing Decree No.38/2026/NĐ-CP dated January 24, 2026, of the Government regulating the import of plants with soil balls and planting area codes, packaging facility codes, the Department of Agriculture and Environment coordinated with the People’s Committees of communes and wards to organize reviews, guide the conversion of granted planting area codes, and implement new issuances according to regulations. However, in the province, there are no planting area codes implementing the conversion yet.

The reason is due to the small, fragmented production scale; many planting areas have not met the requirements for area (10 hectares or more for perennial crops), linkage, and homogeneity according to regulations. Organizing production according to a synchronous process, keeping production diaries, and tracing the origin by some organizations and individuals are still limited. The awareness and capacity to implement technical requirements regarding planting area codes, production diaries, and traceability among a segment of enterprises, cooperatives, and people are not guaranteed. There is a lack of human resources to carry out the management, inspection, and supervision of planting area codes and packaging facility codes.

One of the major difficulties currently is that the province does not have an agricultural, forestry, and fishery food safety testing laboratory designated by the competent authority. All analytical samples serving the issuance of planting area codes and food safety inspections must be sent outside the province, mainly to Hà Nội. This causes the result return time to be prolonged and costs to increase, affecting the progress of completing the code issuance dossiers as well as post-issuance supervision work. Many cooperatives and enterprises have to wait for many days to get the testing results, missing the timing for signing consumption contracts.

Facing these difficulties, the provincial People’s Committee proposed the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment to support training and capacity building for local officials, cooperatives, and enterprises; and at the same time, pay attention to investing in building a standard agricultural and fishery product testing laboratory right in the province to serve the testing of soil, water, and agricultural product samples. The province proposed supporting the construction of a database system, promoting digital transformation in planting area management and product traceability; and strengthening professional guidance to ensure the management of planting area codes and packaging facility codes is carried out uniformly and effectively.

Planting area codes are not only a technical requirement but also a key to opening the door for Điện Biên’s agricultural products to reach high-value, export markets. The journey of building and managing planting area codes still faces many difficulties, but with the synchronous involvement of authorities, enterprises, cooperatives, and people, standard raw material areas will continue to be expanded. This is an important foundation to enhance agricultural product value, build brands, and promote sustainable exports in the future.