How it’s made
How Vietnamese Products Are Made
Every product here follows the same six links — place, plant, harvest, process, grade, world. Each step below cites the guidance or study it comes from.
Quế · Cinnamomum loureiroi
Cinnamon
- 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.1
- 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.1
- 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).1
- 04Process
Washed and sun-dried
Bark is washed, sorted and dried on tarpaulins — never on bare ground — then bundled.1
- 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.1
- 06Use & world
Into world trade
Quills, broken bark and powder; India, the United States and Bangladesh were the largest buyers in 2025.2
Hồi · Illicium verum
Star anise
- 01Place
Border provinces
Lạng Sơn, Cao Bằng, Quảng Ninh and Bắc Kạn, across the border from Guangxi.3
- 02Plant
An evergreen tree
Illicium verum grows 8–15 m tall and bears commercial fruit from roughly 7–10 years, for decades after.4,3
- 03Harvest
Picked green, twice a year
Fruit is picked green, before it splits, in a main autumn crop and a smaller spring crop.4,5
- 04Process
Dried to brown
Sun-and-cover drying or a sack kiln at 30–40 °C for 12–18 hours; 100 kg of fresh fruit gives 25–30 kg dried.6,7
- 05Grade
Whole stars and broken
ISO 11178 and Vietnam’s TCVN 8852 specify the product; offers distinguish autumn from spring crop and whole from broken.8,9,10
- 06Use & world
Spice and industry
The essential oil is mostly trans-anethole; the fruit is also a natural source of shikimic acid.11,12
Điều · Anacardium occidentale
Cashew
- 01Place
From Đà Nẵng southwards
Cashew grows in the Southeast, the Central Highlands and the South Central Coast; the Southeast holds 61% of the national area.13,14
- 02Plant
A tree of the dry tropics
Anacardium occidentale grows up to 10 m; in Vietnam it flowers in the January–April dry season, and fruit matures about two months after bloom.15,13,16
- 03Harvest
Gathered from the ground
Ripe nuts fall with the cashew apple and are collected from the ground, then sun-dried in the shell to about 8–10% moisture.16,17
- 04Process
Steamed, shelled, peeled
In-shell nuts are steamed or roasted to neutralise the corrosive shell oil, then shelled, dried and peeled of the thin testa.18,17,19
- 05Grade
Sorted by colour and count
Kernels are graded by colour and size: W320 means 300–320 white whole kernels per pound in both TCVN 4850:2010 and the US AFI specification.19,20
- 06Use & world
Snacks, food and industry
Kernels are eaten mostly as roasted, salted snacks or used in confectionery and bakery; the shell liquid is an industrial raw material for resins and brake linings.16,17,21
Sources
- 1
Hướng dẫn kỹ thuật trồng, chăm sóc, khai thác cây Quế (kèm Quyết định 14/QĐ-BNN-TCLN)
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).
- 2
Xuất khẩu quế đem lại 300 triệu USD
2025 exports, markets and imports, as reported by VPSA.
- 3
[Star anise production and trade in Lạng Sơn (Sáng & Nguyệt 2021)]
Four growing provinces; Lạng Sơn area and output 2017–2020 and district shares (from the Lạng Sơn Statistics Office). Does not say whether tonnes are fresh or dried.
- 4
Illicium verum — Agroforestree Database 4.0
Tree size, fruit structure, flowering age, yields, ecology, biological fruiting cycle.
- 5
Sức vươn xa của loài hoa tám cánh ở xứ Lạng
Văn Quan area and harvest months. Publication date not shown on the page.
- 6
[Colour treatment of star anise fruit in Lạng Sơn (Dưỡng & Phương 2014)]
Three traditional colour-treatment methods; samples picked in September in Văn Quan.
- 7
Botany, cultivation, fresh-to-dry ratio, oil composition, China and Vietnam as the main producers. Production figures in this 1999 text are historical and not used as current.
- 8
ISO 11178:1995 Star anise (Illicium verum Hook. f.) — Specification
Reviewed and confirmed in 2024. Numeric limits not read (paid text).
- 9
TCVN 8852:2011 Hoa đại hồi (Illicium verum Hook. f.)
Scope and definition read; the table of physico-chemical limits is behind a paywall and not reproduced.
- 10
[Vietnamese star anise export listings (Tridge, freshdi)]
Seller claims: autumn crop larger and better coloured than spring crop; one seller’s specification. Shown only as what sellers state.
- 11
Quotes Ph. Eur. 11.0 for star anise fruit (≥ 70 mL/kg oil, ≥ 86.0% trans-anethole); GC–MS analysis of seven recent batches, all originating from China (Table 3), and GC-FID analysis of four batches against the specification (Table 2); “often used as a cheaper substitute for anise fruit”.
- 12
[Shikimic acid supply for oseltamivir (Washam, EHP 2006)]
Roche’s move from extracting shikimic acid from star anise to E. coli fermentation.
- 13
Quy trình kỹ thuật thâm canh và ghép cải tạo vườn điều
Cashew is grown from Đà Nẵng southwards in three regions (Southeast, Central Highlands, South Central Coast); dry season of 4–6 months; first pruning right after harvest ends, in April–May (Southeast, Central Highlands) or June–July (South Central Coast); flowering in the January–April dry season.
- 14
Đông Nam bộ: Giá điều cao, nông dân thu hàng trăm triệu đồng lợi nhuận
Late March 2025 is the main harvest in the Southeast; the Southeast has over 192,000 ha of cashew, 61% of the national area.
- 15
Kew taxon page with the POWO data: Species Plantarum (1753); native range “Trinidad to S. Tropical America”; tree of the seasonally dry tropical biome, up to 10 m; cashew apple is the thickened pedicel.
- 16
Small-scale cashew nut processing
Sections 1.2, 2.8, 3.2, 3.3: apple yield 8–10 times the weight of raw nuts; nut forms first, stalk then swells; harvest from the ground; apple keeps only 24 hours after picking; apple ripens before the nut; uses (juice, jam, wine in West Africa, feni in India). Its CNSL share is given as both 15% and 20–25% of the nut; not used for that figure. Health and vitamin statements in §3.3 are not used.
- 17
The European market potential for cashew nuts
Product description, INC production figures for 2024/2025 (world 5.29 Mt raw nuts; Cambodia 800,000 t; Vietnam 340,000 t), harvest timing by hemisphere, sun-drying to 8–10% moisture, the five processing steps, and Vietnam’s 2024 share of imports in the UK (90%), the Netherlands (75%), Germany (62%), France (63%), Spain (61%) and Italy (49%).
- 18
Fruit and Tree Nuts Outlook: July 2026
Section “Lower Import Volumes Pressure U.S. Cashew Market”, pp. 26–27. Vietnam 89% of US shelled-cashew import volume in 2022–2024 (India and Brazil 80% in 2000–2002); 2025 imports 277.3 million lb. Shares are by volume under HS 0801.32 (printed as “8001.32” in the report). ERS calls the shell oil “urushiol”; the scientific sources name anacardic acid and cardol.
- 19
TCVN 4850:2010 Nhân hạt điều — Specification for Cashew kernels
Replaces TCVN 4850:1998. Definitions §3 (cashew apple as false fruit; CNSL main components anacardic acid and cardol), moisture ≤5% (§5.1.3), Table 2 grades W160–W500 with kernels per kg and per lb. Current validity not confirmed: the national standards register could not be read.
- 20
Specifications for Cashew Kernels
US trade specification, “Updated September 2023”. Count per kg / per lb for sizes 180, 210, 240, 320, 450; moisture 3–5%; quality classes; definitions of wholes, butts and splits.
- 21
Cashew Tree: Source for Nuts, “Apples,” Even Brake Linings
Family Anacardiaceae, shared with poison ivy, mango and pistachio; shell resin chemically similar to that of poison ivy; apple is the swollen flower/fruit stalk; shell chemicals used in brake linings.