Expensive lesson of pharmacist spending 5 billion to make clean vegetables

Organic vegetable growers, in addition to fighting pests and diseases, also have to face low consumption due to unattractive appearance and high prices.

As a senior pharmacist for an organization in Hanoi, Ms. Nguyen Thi Huyen is very concerned about safety and quality issues. During a meeting with Dr. Hoang Xuan Ba ​​to talk about nutrition and micronutrients, Ms. Huyen realized that food on the market not only lacks the above nutrients but is also contaminated with many chemicals, leading to a high risk of cancer.

“After a period of thinking and researching, in 2013 I decided to choose the organic vegetable growing model. On one hand, to provide for my own family, on the other hand, to supply to those in need,” Ms. Huyen said.

Organically grown cabbages are often damaged by pests. Photo: Lovegarden.

To start implementing this model, Ms. Huyen hired2 hectares of separate land in Thanh Xuan (Hanoi) to grow vegetables. With the desire to provide products with full nutrition and micronutrients, she hired workers to improve the soil, bringing in quality-tested alluvial soil to mix together to grow vegetables. Because, according to her, Vietnam's agricultural land has gone through thousands of years of cultivation and is also barren, so it must be improved to have good soil quality.

“At first, I experimented with planting on about 5,000 square meters and also learned quite a bit about organic fertilizers. In particular, I was afraid of organic fertilizers mixed with unsafe waste because if so, the product used to fertilize plants would contain toxic residues. On the other hand, even if organic fertilizers are composted for 6-7 months, bacteria, viruses, and fungi cannot be completely killed, which could affect the garden. Therefore, I always choose to improve the soil based on natural resources to ensure the safety of the land, so the cost is quite high,” Ms. Huyen confided.

Regarding human resources, Ms. Huyen hires both experienced agricultural engineers and newly graduated engineers. In addition, for each vegetable planting and weeding season, she hires about 15-20 workers (depending on the season); builds an irrigation system, and quality packaging to make the products eye-catching.

At first, the vegetables grew quite well and were harvested, so Ms. Huyen gradually expanded the scale. However, things were not as she imagined. Farming was quite unstable, especially organic production, which required a lot of investment in soil improvement, seed selection, care, and the risk of loss was always lurking. Up to now, Ms. Huyen has invested a total of 5 billion VND but still cannot break even. 8 agricultural engineers working for her also left one by one because they were too discouraged when seeing the vegetable garden fluctuate, which could be devastated after just one attack of worms.

“There was a time when my fellow engineers saw that the vegetables were being destroyed by pests, so they asked to spray biological pesticides that were allowed to be used in organic production, but I firmly objected because the quality of the products would decrease, so many of them got discouraged and left me even though they still received their full salary. However, because I studied in the pharmaceutical industry, I always wanted to make sure that the products were as safe and clean as possible,” Ms. Huyen shared.

Another difficulty that gives Ms. Huyen a headache is that the product is difficult to sell because of its high price. If she wants to make a profit, she has to sell vegetables at a price many times higher than the normal price, even 10 times higher.

“I was happy when Malabar spinach, cucumbers... grew well, were resistant to pests and diseases, and had high yields, but when they were sold to the market, buyers complained that the prices were high. At first, when I gave them to try, they praised them as delicious, but when I sold them, they criticized all kinds of things. There were times when I had to reduce the price by 50-60% to sell them all,” Ms. Huyen said, adding that, with the desire to have a good output for the products, she introduced them to everyone and organized tours of the model. Many restaurant owners who came to her vegetable garden praised the vegetables as delicious, clean, and nutritious..., but when preparing to negotiate a contract, they bargained for a price equivalent to that of vegetable stalls at the temporary market. Specifically, cucumbers cost 7,000 VND per kg, Malabar spinach 4,000 VND. This is an unbelievable price because when growing cucumbers, Ms. Huyen has to choose good varieties, especially small-seeded cucumbers, the process is strict, the harvest time is long, so if sold to the market, it must be at 60,000 VND per kg. Therefore, she cannot meet the above agreement, so the grown products can only be sold to people who are knowledgeable about organic vegetables and are willing to pay a reasonable price.

After several years of observing customers, Ms. Huyen realized that the number of people who really need to use organic vegetables is not much. Most Vietnamese people accept to buy safe vegetables as long as the price is good. After many years of hard work without making any profit, Ms. Huyen plans to reduce the area and only grow to serve those who really need it.

“In the near future, I will survey user needs and only select customers with real needs. I will commit to making products properly to ensure enough quantity for about 300 customers who regularly eat vegetables. This is also a way for me to cut losses, be more relaxed but still maintain my passion for making clean vegetables,” Ms. Huyen confided.

To prevent future generations from following in her footsteps, Ms. Huyen advises that if you want to produce organically, investors should not expect too much, and should not put all their assets into this model like "playing" a gamble, because losses can always happen.

If you want to make a living from this model, you must know who your customers are and how to approach them. Once you have a target customer, you should only invest in a production scale corresponding to the demand. At the same time, you need to have a firm output commitment with the consuming units from price to payment method.

According to VNE