Kon Tum
Central Highlands province transforming through Ngoc Linh ginseng cultivation, targeting 10,000 ha by 2030 while lifting 2,000+ ethnic minority households from poverty through medicinal herb farming.
Kon Tum exists because the Truong Son mountains created a highland plateau where Ngoc Linh ginseng grows wild—a medicinal plant so valuable that the province is engineering its entire agricultural future around cultivating it. With 580,000 people from 43 ethnic groups (55% ethnic minorities), this Central Highlands province achieved 9.47% GRDP growth in 2024 while transitioning Xo Dang, Ba Na, and other communities from subsistence farming to high-value medicinal herb production.
The formation story is ethnobotanical discovery meeting economic planning. Vietnamese traditional medicine long prized Ngoc Linh ginseng from the Ngoc Linh mountain range that straddles Kon Tum and Quang Nam provinces. The plant thrives only at elevations above 1,200 meters in primary forest understory. Rather than extract wild populations to extinction, Kon Tum has developed cultivation systems that combine indigenous knowledge with agricultural science.
The 2030 target is ambitious: 25,000 hectares of medicinal herbs, with Ngoc Linh ginseng covering 10,000 hectares (40%). By 2025, the province aims for 10,000 hectares of medicinal herbs and 4,500 hectares of ginseng. The Kon Tum-Ngoc Linh Ginseng Festival, now held biennially, markets both product and place. Medicinal herbs should account for 15% of provincial agricultural output by 2030—transforming a remote highland economy through a single high-value species.
The social impact is measurable: nearly 2,000 households in Tu Mo Rong District alone have escaped poverty through ginseng cultivation. The transition from slash-and-burn agriculture to forest-compatible herb farming aligns ethnic minority livelihoods with conservation objectives. State budget collection rose 10.56% in 2024; industrial production climbed 22.8%.
On June 12, 2025, Kon Tum was incorporated into Quang Ngai province under Vietnam's administrative reforms. Whether the merged entity can maintain focus on highland ginseng development while balancing coastal priorities will determine whether this niche construction succeeds or dissolves into generic provincial planning.