Mai Son is home to six companies specialising in processing coffee, sugarcane, cassava, and fruits with an industrial scale, along with hundreds of small processing establishments, purchasing about 700,000 tonnes of agricultural products of all kinds each year. This creates a favourable condition for the district to develop raw material areas in association with processing.

The district has established a working group tasked with developing raw material areas, and producing, delivering and exporting local farm produce. The working group has also popularised relevant policies among farmers, cooperatives and businesses, and directed them to develop high-tech agriculture, and work together in agricultural production and sales under chains. At the same time, it has advised local authorities to instruct agencies and units to coordinate with communes and Hat Lot town to review land areas for material area expansion.

In addition, the district has organised conferences to seek solutions to develop a number of key crops, including coffee, macadamia, cassava, mango, longan, corn, custard apple and strawberry, with the engagement of enterprises and cooperatives.

Under the linkage model, producers have strictly observed cultivating and harvesting techniques, ensuring quality and standards of processing plants. Enterprises have properly and fully followed signed terms and commitments to purchasing products at announced prices. Competent agencies have also stepped up state management, ensuring the close links between farmers, the State and businesses.

Since operational in 2023, the Son La Coffee Processing JSC has put in place a contract on production linkages with farmers. To ensure production materials, the company has engaged in linkages to grow 368 hectares of coffee using high technology with 684 households in eight hamlets of Chieng Chung and Chieng Ban communes, with an output of about 6,000 tonnes in the 2023-2024 crop. At the same time, it has joined efforts to grow coffee in the district in a sustainable and closed-loop fashion through cooperatives.

Meanwhile, the Doveco Son La Fruit and Vegetable Processing Centre boasts 843 hectares of materials in service of factories in Mai Son district. It has signed contracts with 14 enterprises and cooperatives, with a total area of ​​424 hectares. The company has committed to providing varieties, fertilizers, and pesticides at preferential prices, or in advance and deducted from harvested products. It has sent personnel to the areas to guide the production process and committed to purchasing all qualified products at the agreed prices.

The Chieng Sung Agriculture JSC is an affiliated unit providing sweet corn for the Dong Giao Foodstuff Export JSC. It has signed contracts with nearly 200 households, cultivating more than 50 hectares of sweet corn and spinach as materials for Doveco Son La. Over the past three years, it has provided 5,000 tonnes of sweet corn for processing. In 2024, it will continue the partnership to expand the areas of ​​sweet corn and spinach, contributing to raising income for businesses and generating jobs for local labourers.

Developing material areas in association with building processing factories has contributed to pushing ahead with the transformation of local agriculture in a right direction, increasing the average crop value per unit of land.

The district continues to encourage farmers and cooperatives to set up linkages and duplicate safe production chains for other processed agricultural products. It has also applied appropriate mechanisms and policies to encourage businesses to set up linkages in production, sale and processing.