VietnameseOriginsSearch

Vietnamese Origins

Discover Vietnam through what it grows and makes.

An English-language reference to the places, plants, harvests, processes and trade behind Vietnam’s globally important ingredients — with every figure sourced and dated.

Explore originsExplore the Vietnam map

Origin plate · protected origins on this site

  1. 01

    Cinnamon Quế

    Bark

    Văn Yên, Yên Báigeographical indication, 20101
  2. 02

    Cinnamon Quế

    Bark

    Trà My, Quảng Namgeographical indication, 20112
  3. 03

    Star anise Hồi

    Fruit

    Lạng Sơngeographical indication, 20073
Each pairing is a geographical indication granted in Vietnam. Pre-2025 province names, as the indications use them.

Geography first

Explore Vietnam by origin

Every shaded province carries a sourced link to a product. A province appears only when a source puts the product there; the atlas grows as the research does.

Map of Vietnam: 11 provinces linked by evidence to cinnamon, star anise, cashew
Provinces as they were before the July 2025 merger (geoBoundaries). Hoàng Sa (the Paracel Islands) is drawn in its true position; Trường Sa (the Spratly Islands) lies further south-east, beyond the frame, and appears in a schematic inset that is not to position or scale.

Origin atlas

Select a province

Sourced origins
11
Documented products
3
Full region guides
3

Choose a marked province on the map to see what grows there and the evidence for it.

  • Cinnamon7 provinces
  • Star anise4 provinces
  • Cashew1 province
  • Stripes: more than one product

Open the full atlas and province list →

Index of products

Products of Vietnam

Published guides link through. Pages for black pepper, rice are in research and will appear when the evidence is in.Coffee lives on our specialist site, VietnameseIced.coffee.

  1. No. 01

    Spices · Origin guide

    CinnamonQuế

    Cinnamomum loureiroi · Cinnamomum cassia

    Northern and central mountains · Bark

    Cassia-type cinnamon bark, peeled by hand in two seasons from trees grown in the mountains of northern and central Vietnam.

  2. No. 02

    Spices · Origin guide

    Star aniseHồi

    Illicium verum

    Northern border provinces · Fruit

    The dried star-shaped fruit of Illicium verum, a tree native to southern China and northern Vietnam; in Vietnam it comes mainly from Lạng Sơn.

  3. No. 03

    Nuts · Origin guide

    CashewĐiều

    Anacardium occidentale

    South-east and Central Highlands · Seed (kernel)

    Vietnam is the world’s largest exporter of shelled cashews, processing its own crop and millions of tonnes of imported raw nuts.

  4. No. 04

    Spices · In research

    Black pepperHồ tiêu

    Piper nigrum

    In research · Fruit (peppercorn)

    Search demand is confirmed by our research run; the sourced fact base is not yet compiled.

  5. No. 05

    Grains · In research

    RiceLúa gạo

    Oryza sativa

    In research · Grain

    Search demand for Vietnamese fragrant rice is confirmed by our research run; the fact base is not yet compiled.

  6. No. 06

    Beverages · Specialist guide

    CoffeeCà phê

    Coffea canephora · Coffea arabica

    Specialist guide · Seed

    Covered in depth by our specialist sister site, VietnameseIced.coffee. VietnameseIced.coffee →

Featured comparison

Saigon cinnamon vs Ceylon cinnamon

Two species sold under one word. Saigon cinnamon is Cinnamomum loureiroi, a cassia from Vietnam; Ceylon cinnamon is Cinnamomum verum.6,7 Our comparison puts four species side by side, with a source on every cell — the kind of answer a search summary cannot give.

Read the comparison

Coumarin in one authenticated bark sample, mg/kg

Ceylon C. verum
17
Saigon C. loureiroi
6,970
One sample of each species in one US laboratory study.4,5 Values vary widely between samples, even within one tree; this is the order of magnitude, not a jar’s content.

From land to product

Place, plant, harvest, process, grade, world

The same six links run through every product guide. Here is Vietnamese cinnamon, from national grower guidance and export data.

  1. 01Place

    Mountain districts

    Seed-source areas named by the Ministry of Agriculture run from Văn Yên in Yên Bái to Trà Bồng in Quảng Ngãi.8

  2. 02Plant

    A tree grown for its bark

    Thinnings yield bark from year 4–5; selective harvests come at years 10–12 and 14–15; the main harvest takes trees over 15 years old.8

  3. 03Harvest

    Two peeling seasons

    Bark is girdled a week before felling and peeled in 40–60 cm sections, in spring (March–April) or autumn (August–October).8

  4. 04Process

    Washed and sun-dried

    Bark is washed, sorted and dried on tarpaulins — never on bare ground — then bundled.8

  5. 05Grade

    Graded by position and thickness

    National guidance grades bark by where it grew on the tree and by thickness: A over 5 mm, B 2.5–5 mm, C under 2.5 mm.8

  6. 06Use & world

    Into world trade

    Quills, broken bark and powder; India, the United States and Bangladesh were the largest buyers in 2025.9

How each product is made →

Why origin matters

A product is a place, a process and the people who know them

  1. Place

    Where it grows

    Three cinnamon districts and one star anise province have protected geographical indications — the law ties the product name to the place.1,2,10,3

  2. Process

    How it is made

    Cinnamon bark is graded by where on the trunk it grew and by thickness; star anise is picked green and dried until it browns.8,11,12

  3. People

    Who knows it

    Practice is written down in national grower guidance and in older references, such as the traditional curing of quế Thanh in banana leaves.8,13

Origin data

Built on evidence you can inspect

Every figure on this site links to its source, and every source says what kind it is — a regulator, a paper, a trade body, an exporter’s claim — and how much of it we read. Counts below are computed from the site’s data at build time.

How we research and correct →

Products with a guide
3
Provinces on the atlas
11
Region guides
3
Editorial pages
12
Sources in the registry
113
Of which primary or scientific
77
Last research pass
7 October 2026

Latest from the atlas

Field notes

  1. Explainer

    What Is a Cashew Apple?

    The fruit-like part of the cashew tree is a swollen flower stalk. It is edible, astringent and very perishable, which is why most of the world’s cashew apples never leave the orchard.

  2. Origin

    Where Do Cashews Come From?

    From a tree native to tropical South America to a shelling plant in southern Vietnam: how a cashew grows, who grows it, and why most of the world’s kernels pass through Vietnam.

  3. Explainer

    Cassia Cinnamon: Three Species, One Trade Name

    One trade word, three species from three countries — one of them Vietnam. Here is what “cassia” means in the spice trade and in regulation, and why it is still cinnamon.

  4. Explainer

    Coumarin in Cinnamon: What Is Measured, and What Is Regulated

    A composition page. Every number here comes from a named study or regulator, most of them single samples — and the samples disagree more than most summaries admit.

Sources for the figures on this page

13 sources · 5 primary · 4 scientific · 1 industry · 3 secondary. Source classes and how we weigh them: methodology.

  1. 1

    Sức sống cây quế Văn Yên

    SecondaryNhân DânAccessed 2026-10-07Read in full

    Văn Yên cinnamon geographical indication granted in 2010.

  2. 2

    Thơm lừng hương quế Trà My

    PrimaryMinistry of Industry and Trade of VietnamAccessed 2026-10-07Read in full

    Trà My cinnamon geographical indication granted October 2011.

  3. 3

    Hoa hồi — sản vật đặc trưng của xứ Lạng

    PrimaryMinistry of Industry and Trade of Vietnam2022-08-31Accessed 2026-10-07Read in full

    Domestic geographical-indication protection in 2007; harvest timing in lunar months. Promotional claims about quality are not used.

  4. 4

    Cassia cinnamon as a source of coumarin in cinnamon-flavored food and food supplements in the United States

    ScientificWang YH, Avula B, Nanayakkara NPD, Zhao J, Khan IAJournal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 61(18):4470–44762013Accessed 2026-10-07Abstract read

    Abstract read. Per-species coumarin values are taken from the review by Lončar et al. (2020), Table 4, which reproduces them.

  5. 5

    Coumarins in Food and Methods of Their Determination

    ScientificLončar M, Jakovljević M, Šubarić D, et al.Foods 9(5):6452020Accessed 2026-10-07Read in full

    Table 4, “Coumarin content on cinnamon and cinnamon-containing foods”, read twice; values match.

  6. 6

    ISO 6538:1997 Cassia, Chinese type, Indonesian type and Vietnamese type — Specification (third edition at FDIS stage)

    PrimaryInternational Organization for Standardization1997Accessed 2026-10-07Title and status only (paid text)

    Title and status only. The standard is paid; its numeric limits are not reproduced here. ISO/FDIS 6538 has been at stage 50.00 since 2026-09-11.

  7. 7

    21 CFR 182.10 — Spices and other natural seasonings and flavorings

    PrimaryUS Code of Federal Regulations (Cornell LII)Accessed 2026-10-07Read in full

    Lists “Cassia, Saigon” and “Cinnamon, Saigon” as Cinnamomum loureirii Nees.

  8. 8

    Hướng dẫn kỹ thuật trồng, chăm sóc, khai thác cây Quế (kèm Quyết định 14/QĐ-BNN-TCLN)

    PrimaryMinistry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Vietnam2022-01-05Accessed 2026-10-07Read in full

    Technical guidance for growers: seed-source areas (III.1), harvest seasons (VI.2b), harvesting and bark grading (VIII), processing and packing (IX). Names the cultivated tree “Cinamomum cassia BL.” (sic).

  9. 9

    Xuất khẩu quế đem lại 300 triệu USD

    IndustryTạp chí Thuế Hải quan, reporting the Vietnam Pepper and Spice Association (VPSA)2026-01-08Accessed 2026-10-07Read in full

    2025 exports, markets and imports, as reported by VPSA.

  10. 10

    Quế Trà Bồng — từ non cao đi khắp năm châu

    SecondaryTạp chí Công ThươngAccessed 2026-10-07Read in full

    Trà Bồng cinnamon geographical indication granted 23 November 2020.

  11. 11

    Illicium verum — Agroforestree Database 4.0

    ScientificOrwa C, Mutua A, Kindt R, Jamnadass R, Simons AWorld Agroforestry (ICRAF)2009Accessed 2026-10-07Read in full

    Tree size, fruit structure, flowering age, yields, ecology, biological fruiting cycle.

  12. 12

    [Colour treatment of star anise fruit in Lạng Sơn (Dưỡng & Phương 2014)]

    ScientificNguyễn Văn Dưỡng, Vũ Thị Hoàng PhươngTạp chí Khoa học Lâm nghiệp 4/2014, tr. 3627–3633 (VAFS)2014Accessed 2026-10-07Read in full

    Three traditional colour-treatment methods; samples picked in September in Văn Quan.

  13. 13

    Những cây thuốc và vị thuốc Việt Nam — Cây quế

    SecondaryĐỗ Tất Lợi (reprint on vnras.com)Accessed 2026-10-07Read in full

    Botany only: which Cinnamomum species occur in Vietnam and the traditional curing of quế Thanh. The medicinal sections are not used.