New startup trend of Nghe An start-up

Dare to think, dare to do

The first product we want to mention is the honey of the Group Joint Stock Company, branded "bometa". Nguyen Van Hoc - Director of the company said that the above name is not English or an international translation but a "pure Nghe" word, expressing the wish: each product is like a loving gift that children give to their parents, which Nghe people often call "our parents". Starting from nothing and after nearly 10 years of studying and working with many stumbles and failures, but thanks to the will to rise, Hoc now has a collection of 29 products, of which 11 products meet 3-star OCOP standards and 4 OCOP 4-star products; the Company's products are distributed by 56 provincial distributors; entering pharmacies and clean food chains.

The honey refining line of Bometa Group Joint Stock Company is being processed by Nghe An Center for Service Consulting and Industrial Promotion to enjoy support policies from the National Industrial Promotion. Photo: Nguyen Hai

Based on the main foundation of refined honey, Hoc processes and produces health-supporting products such as agricultural and food products, herbal teas, etc. To reach this demanding market, Hoc approaches the standards.organic production according to organic standardsAmerican, farm design to production line, processing ensures safety. From seemingly discarded herbal leaves in rural areas, through the processing line, they become tea drinks to detoxify the liver and purify the body.

Talking to us, Hoc added: Producing herbal tea is both easy and difficult. It is easy because raw materials such as honey or plants and leaves native to our country's tropical climate are not lacking, but it is difficult to control according to safety and organic production criteria. For example, honey products, to have a guaranteed source of honey, Hoc surveyed and ordered 48 stable bee farms across the country and the Company only bought after 6 months of monitoring if the quality was met... Thanks to persistently "applying" this criterion, the Company's product quality records were inspected and recognized by the provincial authorities and the Intellectual Property Office.

The second model is that of young start-up Dang Thi Tam, An An Agri Joint Stock Company in Dien Thanh commune, Dien Chau district. Born and raised in the countryside of Dien Chau, every time Tam goes to the market to buy goods, she often wonders why agricultural products, which are produced by people working very hard, always have a good harvest but the price always drops; clean or unclean products are mixed on the market and sold at the same low price.

From the above thoughts, in 2015, Tam decided to start a business producing safe organic vegetables and fruits. At the beginning, with an initial capital of only 100 million VND, Tam determined to only produce safe vegetables to supply to the Vinh City market because this is a large and demanding market in Nghe An. However, after a period of distribution, realizing that although the quality of vegetables and fruits is good, they are mainly packaged, processed raw, bulky goods, high transportation costs but low value, Tam decided to switch to refined processing.

Packaging fruit noodles at An An Agri Joint Stock Company in Dien Thanh commune (Dien Chau). Photo by contributor Sach Nguyen

Realizing that instant noodles are a favorite food of most Vietnamese people, each kilogram of local white noodles produced by local people from rice flour is quite cheap, but if processed into clean vegetable, root and fruit noodles sold in supermarkets for people on a diet, the price ranges from 250,000 to 1 million VND/kg. By chance, while sending products to participate in the Northern Clean Vegetable, Root and Fruit Fair, the cabbage and tomato products produced by Tam's farm were tasted by a Japanese culinary expert and impressed. After being introduced further, the expert decided to go to the place to see the model. From then on, after many contacts, Tam was guided by the expert on the technical process and transferred the processing technology...

With the support of family and colleagues, in 2019, Tam's fruit instant noodle product was born. On the common basis of fruit instant noodle products, the Company produces dozens of product codes, of which the most typical are wheat germ noodles, red radish and amaranth noodles, turmeric noodles, ginseng vegetable noodles... The products have now reached 90% of the domestic market in large supermarket chains and exported to other countries. In its current position, the Company can place its factory anywhere, but Tam wants its product brand name with the native trees and animals that have made the product brand. By doing this, Tam has realized the encouragement and motivation of a Japanese expert, "whatever the world can do, Vietnamese and Nghe An people with intelligence and creativity can do".

Solutions for young startups in Nghe An to go far

These are just two of dozens of successful start-up models from Nghe An rural industry. Currently, the area also has big products and brands such as medicinal tea, lotus tea sets, turmeric starch, etc.

OCOP products following the organic safe production process of young startups from Nghe An participated in the introduction at the Conference connecting supply and demand of industrial and commercial products from Nghe An - Quang Tri. Photo: Nguyen Hai

The process of starting and growing of the above start-ups, besides the efforts of each person, has the mark, companionship and support of the province through the National Industrial Promotion Center, the Provincial Industrial Promotion Center, and the Center for Science and Technology Application. Depending on the scale, each model is supported with nearly 1 billion VND. Compared to the value of the chain that the enterprise invested, the above support is not large but is a necessary encouragement and support for the start-up models to grow. However, besides the initial successes, there are still many difficulties.

Currently, health-related food and beverage products should be strictly managed and monitored; production must follow VietGap and G organic processes.globalGAP, organic… then the opportunity will be greater. Thanks to this approach, the above models have positioned their brands in the market, but to take off and reach far is not simple.

Nghe An is one of the provinces that produces a lot of honey in the country, but in reality, many honey samples do not meet standards, so it is difficult to buy. To ensure safety and standard products, in addition to the chain of bee farms, only establishments that produce according to their own conditions dare to import.

Mr. Nguyen Van Hoc - owner of Bometa brand

Similarly, after convincing Japanese experts, Tam faced a great opportunity when he received a request to supply 20 containers of vegetables and fruits per month, but he did not dare to accept because it was not easy to pass food inspection barriers in other countries. Tam's noodle production materials only used vegetables and fruits grown by the unit and some land rented from farmers because growing and buying from outside required testing every 15 days and if the goods did not meet the standards, it would be extremely disadvantageous to return them.

Producing organic vegetables for processing fruit noodles in the raw material area of ​​Dien Phuc commune (Dien Chau). Photo: Nguyen Hai

In fact, in the above models, after a period of initial start-up, they were forced to rent premises, but now they have developed more and want to rent premises to open factories, product display booths and develop raw material areas. However, having a 20-hectare raw material area for An An Agri Joint Stock Company or 30 hectares for Bometa Company is almost a dream, because currently these are only small and medium enterprises, with a revenue of only 10 to 20 billion VND/year, employing an average of 30-70 workers.

The noodle product made from barley sprouts in Dien Chau is a bold move by An An Agri Joint Stock Company and this product is favored by the export market. Photo: Contributor of Sach Nguyen

This is also a difficult story for Nghe An agriculture when entering large-scale production, enterprises have defined product segments and have markets but find it difficult to break through due to lack of raw materials or resources. In fact, successful agricultural models in our country up to this point are all produced by enterprises in a closed process, in which, from production to processing and distribution, are controlled by enterprises and are reluctant to buy raw materials from outside.

At forums promoting innovative startups, Mr. Tran Quoc Thanh - Director of the Department of Science and Technology of the province has repeatedly urged; at the same time, given his opinion: In order for Nghe An start-ups to go far, the province must give wings, provide initial support in renting premises for factories, and support the development of safe and sustainable raw material areas. When rural industrial products are attractive, they will contribute to shaping the production criteria for our agriculture to strive for and grow.