As a result, in the past three years, the province's agricultural processing industry has developed in the right direction and achieved many positive results.

In the 2021-2023 period, Son La province granted new investment policies to six projects, including the Doveco Son La export vegetable and fruit processing factory of Dong Giao Foodstuff JSC; BHL Son La glucose liquid sugar processing factory; the agricultural processing factory of Nafoods Tay Bac JSC; the Moc Chau agricultural product processing and preservation investment project of Tay Bac Trading Company; the Moc Chau ecological farm complex and high-tech dairy farm project of Moc Chau Dairy Cattle Breeding JSC; and the coffee processing factory of Son La Coffee Processing JSC. Up to now, two factories have been put into operation, including the coffee processing factory of Son La Coffee Processing JSC and Doveco Son La.

Operational for nearly two years, Doveco Son La is expected to be one of the leading vegetable and fruit processing centers in the province. Deputy Director Nguyen Hang Nga said since the beginning of the 2024 crop, Dong Giao Foodstuff JSC has purchased over 8,700 tonnes of vegetables and fruits of all kinds, including about 2,000 tonnes of mango. From now to the year-end, the company will purchase over 60,000 tonnes of agricultural products of all kinds, including 10,000 tonnes of passion fruit; 1,000 tonnes of longan, 20,000 tonnes of mango and other agricultural products.

Now Son La province has nearly 60 factories and processing facilities, mainly processing agricultural products such as tea, coffee, sugar products, milk and cassava starch. They are operating effectively and constantly developing raw material areas under chains. For example, Son La Sugarcane JSC signed contracts to produce and sell sugarcane with nearly 10,000 households. Enterprises and cooperatives have engaged in linking coffee production and consumption with 12,000 households. Moc Chau Dairy Cattle Breeding JSC linked with nearly 513 households in livestock farming and hundreds of households in growing corn, serving the TMR plant. In addition to serving the domestic market, the products have been exported to countries around the world.

After more than six years of operation, Phuc Sinh Son La JSC has made a new step forward. This is the first factory to put into operation a modern Cacara tea processing line with a designed capacity of 0.5 tonnes per batch. Previously, all coffee fruit shells were used as fertilizer or fuel, but this line has used them to create a special tea product with high economic value warmly welcomed by the European market.

Nguyen Van Bac, Director of the provincial Department of Industry and Trade, said the processing industry of Son La province has been developing in both quantity and quality. Currently, the province has 17 factories and 543 establishments for agricultural processing, with an annual capacity of tens to thousands of tonnes of mango, longan, coffee, cassava, pineapple, plum, sweet corn, banana, macadamia, hawthorn, passion fruit, vegetables, tubers, contributing to reducing the pressure on fresh fruit sale and increasing the value of agricultural products.

In July, the provincial Party Committee’s Standing Board gave in-principle approval to the Mavin Mai Son animal feed and agricultural processing complex project. The competent authorities are completing related documents to propose the project for approval as directed by the provincial Party Committee and People's Committee. They must ensure that the proposed investment project belongs to the list of industries and occupations with special investment incentives or investment incentives, in line with the investment attraction goal approved by the provincial Party Committee in Resolution No. 06-NQ/TU.

Son La province will continue to promote administrative procedure reform, improve the investment and business environment, and do a good job of attracting investors, especially those engaging in agricultural product processing projects; while creating favourable conditions for enterprises to participate in the scientific and technological tasks of the province. It will complete the system of agricultural product consumption channels under the value chain; form "locomotive" enterprises as the core, and promote the processing industry under a chain to increase the value of agricultural products and create more jobs for local workers.

Son La strives for the production value of the agricultural product processing industry to reach 6.5 trillion VND ($261.33 million) by 2025.