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We demonstrate, to the best of our knowledge, the first direct vortex beam generation in the 3 μm spectral region by employing an Er:Y_2O_3 ceramic laser. Controllable handedness with high purity is achieved by introducing asymmetric cavity loss and reducing the number of longitudinal modes. The average orbital angular momentum of the produced scalar vortex beam is quantitatively evaluated to be 0.95ħ for the LG_0,+1 mode and −0.94ħ for the LG_0,−1 mode. The corresponding optical spectrum is centered at 2710.8 and 2710.5 nm, respectively.