Cassia powder is not only a common spice but also a good medicine for health and beauty care. This is a new product of Binh Lieu Herb Cooperative, which has very good quality.
Sharing about the product idea, the production manager said: “Cassia has become a familiar tree, one of the specialties of Binh Lieu land. With a large growing area and two crops per year, the annual output reaches more than 2,000 MTs. Also, cassia quality planting here is very good. In folklore, cassia is also one of four precious medicinal herbs. Moreover, casssia is a good spice and ingredients for cosmetics industries”.
“However, cassia barks are usually exported in the forms of raw materials, so the economic value is not really high. In order to increase the value of local cassia trees, we have been diligently researching and introducing cassia powder products from 100% pure cassia”, she added.
In 2017, the Cooperative started researching and conducting production processes for products. Accordingly, to produce a high quality cassia powder, the Cooperative should prepare carefully at all stages, especially input materials. It was fresh cassia in a famous concentration in Binh Lieu Distrcit, such as Vo Ngam, Hoanh Mo, Dong Van… After being selected, fresh cassia was cleaned, dried and then ground in the form of fine powder.
These steps must be strictly followed by the technical processes. Especially, the selection and processing of raw materials are the most important, affecting the quality of cassia powder. Accordingly, fresh cassia is thick and has the highest oil content inside. Workers will shave off the outer lumpy shell to make beautiful color.
After drying cassia in the forms of rolls or bars, workers will dry to reache a moisture level of 12%. This step will make cassia dry enough for easy crushing and keeping oil level and typical flavor of cassia barks. Workers grind cassia barks into the fine powder form and then pack for exporting companies of Vietnamese spices.
To improve product quality, the Cooperative has invested in standardizing production processes and grinding machine. Currently, the production output of cassia powder is more than 150 MTs per year. Most of this volume is for export.
“This is a new product, so the consumption speed is not really good. In the future, we will promote the product through e-commerce channels, participate in exhibitions. At the same time, we will invest to further improve the quality to bring cassia products to consumers”, she shared about the future development orientation.