Many locals in Dinh Quan District of the southern Dong Nai Province have recently scrambled to collect dry cashew leaves to sell to unknown traders at significant prices. Nguyen Tan Binh, a ninth grader at Tran Quoc Tuan secondary school, said he often goes to collect the leaves on the weekend, and earns VND10,000 to VND20,000 every day. “It’s enough to put it in my piggy bank,” he said. Many local residents, mostly young students and the elderly, in Gia Canh Commune have also rushed to find leaves over the last month, and have sold them for VND1,000 a kg. Ngo Thi Hieu, who runs a facility that buys the leaves, said she receives some four to five tons on a daily basis. “We turn the leaves into fertilizer and will later sell it to a woman under a previously agreed upon order,” she said. But asked what ‘that woman’ will do with the leaves, Hieu said she has no idea. “As the leaves have yet to be turned into fertilizer, the woman has not showed up.”‘Should be wary’ Dao Ngoc Anh, deputy chairman of the commune’s People’s Committee, admitted that dry cashew leaves have become sought-after in the area. The committee has thus encouraged locals not to sell the leaves anymore, as the leaves help enrich and fertilize the grounds of the cashew plantations in the commune, he said. “However, as the leaf trading is a normal activity and does not violate any laws, we cannot ban them, but only encourage them,” he admitted. Pham Minh Dao, director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said he has asked relevant authorities and police to look into the case. Dao said the authorities should remain wary of the issue. “Locals may cut down the cashew trees to get the leaves, dry them and sell them for money, which will in fact destroy the local cashew production,” he said. A similar phenomenon occurred last year in the northern province of Bac Giang, but with litchi leaves becoming the most wanted products. In December 2011 Luc Ngan District of northern Bac Giang Province was of busy trading, with dry litchi leaves being the most sought-after products, rather than the locality’s nationally-popular litchi fruits. The dry leaves are sold to local traders hired by a company based in Hanoi, whose purpose in buying the leaves remains mysterious to both traders and farmers.