 |
“Rice paper can only be from Vietnam”
Born in the heart of the famous traditional craft village - Phu Hoa Dong rice paper (Cu Chi, Ho Chi Minh City), but from childhood until finishing high school, Le Duy Toan never thought that he would continue his family's rice paper making job, a hard job, having to stay up late, wake up early, endure the sun and rain without much profit. He dreamed of reaching out to the world, working for large international corporations.
In 2006, Le Duy Toan went to the US, studied business administration at California State University, and began his journey to conquer his dream.
However, while studying in the US, the rice paper bags on supermarket shelves labeled "Made in Thailand" made him completely change his mind.
Toan said: “I was very upset when I saw these rice paper bags. I was 100% sure that they were Vietnamese rice paper, because Thailand does not produce rice paper. They buy rice paper from Vietnam, package it and it says Made in Thailand.”
That story happened more than 12 years ago, but when Toan shared it with us, his voice was still choked up. He said he could not accept that the product that his parents, family, and compatriots had worked hard to make was being brought to the international market under the name of another person, another country.
Talking with businessman Le Duy Toan What motivated you to start your production and business journey? It was the spirit of national pride. I started this journey because I was proud of my hometown's rice paper. I persevered because I didn't want my hometown's products to be labeled as those of another country when they went abroad. I was creative and daring, perhaps because the creative spirit of the Vietnamese people is always present in me. Recently, Duy Anh Foods' business results have declined due to the impact of the general situation, but I still tried to maintain production, because I wanted to help people in my village and hometown have stable jobs and be paid a salary commensurate with their efforts. This is my national spirit. Have you thought about digitizing the production process when bringing Vietnamese rice paper and vermicelli into commercial products? I have thought about it and have used machines in some stages to ensure accuracy in time and indexes. However, making vermicelli and rice paper is still a traditional profession, machines cannot completely replace the hands of Vietnamese people in the production process of these products."Rice paper can only be from Vietnam," Toan affirmed.
Since then, he has cherished the idea of bringing Vietnamese rice paper and dried vermicelli to the world to affirm to international friends: these are Vietnamese dishes, created by Vietnamese people.
After finishing 4 years of studying abroad in the US, Le Duy Toan returned to Vietnam, home to start a business with traditional rice paper, to the surprise of his relatives and friends.
Bringing Vietnamese rice paper and vermicelli to the world
Despite not receiving support from his family, Toan was determined to start his own business. He pooled all his savings, borrowed about 500 million VND, built a factory, bought machinery, hired workers... and founded Duy Anh Foods.
Toan’s entrepreneurial journey was fraught with difficulties. From the first batches of rice paper that were not tasty enough to be thrown away, to the problem of low productivity when producing by hand, to the low aesthetics and quality of the products…
After many trials, Duy Anh Foods had the first complete products, but when offering them to partners in Japan, the US..., they all shook their heads. Toan continued to improve the process and perfect the products...
He said that there were Japanese partners who placed orders, but it took about 8 months, until the 13th sample submission, for Duy Anh Foods' rice paper products to be accepted.
“Japanese customers are very picky about food hygiene, they have their own labor criteria. This makes me stuck between the ‘old man’ and the ‘new man’, because the traditional craft village has its own traditional way of doing things. Workers in the countryside are used to the manual way of doing things with a stove, drying cakes in the yard…, it is not easy to change,” Toan shared.
In addition, Toan also had to spend a lot of effort to research the specific needs of customers in different markets. He realized that each market prefers a product with different shapes, sizes, thickness/thinness. Consumers in Europe have different preferences than consumers in Asian countries. Americans have their own requirements, the Thai market is also different...
“I have to determine which country/region I am selling to, how the climate there is different from Vietnam, whether they like soft or chewy rice paper, what ingredients to roll the rice paper with…”, Toan said.
With perseverance in learning, researching and not being afraid to change to meet the diverse needs of customers, up to now, Duy Anh Foods' rice paper, rice vermicelli, watermelon vermicelli products... have been officially exported to 58 countries around the world. Among them, there are the most demanding markets such as Japan, the US, and Europe.
 |
Constantly innovate and create
Although initially successful, young businessman Le Duy Toan did not stop there. He and the Duy Anh Foods team continued to create many new, unique and quality products.
The most typical is the watermelon vermicelli dish, the only Vietnamese product displayed at the Innovation Show at Thaifex 2022 and Mr Rice cereal vermicelli was awarded the Sial Innovation Award at Sial Paris 2022. Duy Anh Foods is the only Vietnamese enterprise with a product winning the Sial Innovation Award, among thousands of enterprises from 167 participating countries.
When asked about the reason and motivation for creating “unique” products such as watermelon vermicelli…, Toan sincerely shared: “Actually, there is nothing complicated. Simply, at that time, during the epidemic, farmers’ melons could not be sold, so I wanted to do something to help people consume agricultural products.”
The process of processing and producing watermelon vermicelli also encountered many difficulties. At first, the product had a “strange” color, forcing Toan to adjust the recipe. After 2 weeks with dozens of experiments, having to discard many batches of damaged, broken, sticky, mushy products..., Duy Anh Foods was able to successfully produce watermelon vermicelli.
Toan revealed that to make a "standard" watermelon noodle dish, he has to choose the ingredients very carefully; the production stages need to be calculated in terms of time, to get the most satisfactory product.
The success of watermelon vermicelli is the motivation for Duy Anh Foods to develop more unique ideas combining traditional rice paper, vermicelli, and pho products with Vietnamese agricultural products. The most prominent recent products are Mr Rice cereal vermicelli, dragon fruit rice paper, etc., helping to expand the output of agricultural products, creating jobs for more than 70 workers.
Currently, Duy Anh Foods has built a closed-loop production line that meets ISO 22000:2018 standards, is controlled by HACCP procedures and is FDA certified. Every day, this young enterprise produces about 15 - 20 tons of goods, at peak times it can reach 30 - 60 tons, consuming about 20 - 25 tons of rice and a large amount of other agricultural products such as watermelon, dragon fruit...
Sharing about his future plans, Le Duy Toan said that he is targeting the food market for Muslims and Jews, because Duy Anh Foods' products are suitable for markets that require Halal certification for Muslims and Kosher certification for Jews.
The company has also exported Halal standard products to ASEAN countries such as Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and the West Asia region. However, there is still no unified Halal standard worldwide, each market has its own requirements, so Duy Anh Foods will focus on learning and researching to obtain product certification for each market.
"This is a huge potential for the food industry. If we can conquer it, Duy Anh Foods will make great strides," Le Duy Toan hopes.
baodautu.vn
Comment (0)