Nowadays, the medium price is 300.000 – 350.000VND per liter, mint honey brought high income for the ethnic minorities in Ha Giang plateau. Also to be depend on beekeeping for honey, many families in Ha Giang plateau had become to millionaire on in the difficult area.

On Ha Giang Palteau, the mint trees usually bloom from September to December in Lunar calendar. This is the valued nectar resource to develop the beekeeping for honey. However, the previous years, beekeeping for honey of ethnic minorities was spontaneous generation and served for demand of their family on festivals and Tet holiday.

In recent years, when consumers and visitors have travelled on Ha Giang plateau, they have been discovering the valued mint honey (Honey has taste of mint flower), so the beekeeping for honey has developed. Group 4 in Dong Van town of Dong Van district, Mr. Hoang Thanh Do, who is representative of the movement of the beekeeping for honey. Today, he is having 150-170 hives. Having of beekeeping experience, Mr.Do has 8-10 hives in a box and collects 10-12 liters honey/years/box. Mr. Do sais that: “The medium price was 320.000 VND/litre, his family had profit over 380 millions VND from the mint flower in 2015”.
 
In group 2, Meo Vac town of Meo Vac district, Then Van Hai’s family has 1,400 hives and profit from the beekeeping for honey is over 1.2 billions VND. And group 4 in Meo Vac town, Hoang Xuan Bach’s family has profit over 350 millions VND from the beekeeping for honey.

Because the mint honey is a valued medical resource so the mint honey should love by consumers and visitors as a specialty of this area. The movement of the beekeeping for honey is more and more developmental. In the end of 2015, Dong Van district had 4,500 hives. There were 3 – 3.5 litres each hive. In district, total production of honey was 12.5 to 13 thousands litres with values from 3.5 to 4 billions VND.
 
Despite being blessed for mint pollen sources, but the beekeeping for honey of the ethnic minorities in 4 districts of Ha Giang plateau hasn’t developed appropriate with the potential. So, 4 Districts People’s Committee in Ha Giang plateau had prior policies to help the ethnic minorities to develop the beekeeping for honey to rise income, contributed to eliminate hunger and reduce poverty, and got richer from this profession. The previous years, District People’s Committee directed the District Vocational Training Centre in collaboration with Research and Development National Centre for bee to open the training courses about farming techniques, care and prevent from disease for the hive to communes and towns of the district in the province.
Mr. Nguyen Minh Tien - Vice Chairman of Ha Giang province People’s Committee said that: “Development the beekeeping for mint honey in 4 districts is one of 6 products agricultural restructure of Ha Giang province in the period of 2016 - 2020. Therefore, 4 districts in Ha Giang plateau should define the typical product of their district and Ha Giang province.
 
Pham Van Phu – Translator: Quynh Hoa