Discover the hundred million dollar orchid garden in the middle of the capital

In the middle of Hanoi capital, there is a forest of Phalaenopsis orchids grown in a high-tech greenhouse of 150,000m². The industrial air conditioning system runs 24/7. Irrigation water is treated with RO technology and seaweed used to grow orchids is imported from Chile, South America...

Engineer Nguyen Van Kinh with colorful Phalaenopsis orchids that were bred and cared for at Toan Cau flower garden - Photo: THAI LOC

Even Taiwanese businessmen, the world's capital of phalaenopsis orchids, when visiting this garden were overwhelmed by the scale and technology that surpasses the high-class orchid gardens in Taiwan and Asia. Because this garden currently has about 2 million phalaenopsis orchids with 130 popular colors, expected to increase to 8 million orchids by 2025 and there are greenhouses growing orchids for Tet 2027, 2028.

The feat of caring for the "king of flowers"

When the greenhouse door opened, what caught our eyes was tens of thousands of orchids lying in neat rows at the Phalaenopsis orchid nursery project of Toan Cau High-Tech Agricultural Investment and Development Joint Stock Company (Dan Phuong District, Hanoi). Layers of colorful orchid branches blooming and bending in one direction made each greenhouse look like an endless flower field before spring.

When the first phalaenopsis orchid buds bloom at the end of the 11th lunar month, traders flock to the orchid garden to transport tens of thousands of flowers, considered the "king of flowers", to all three regions.

To make flowers bloom in time for Tet requires a special care process lasting 3 years, like taking care of a child.

Every day, more than 100 workers have to take care of each tree one by one, from checking temperature, humidity, watering, fertilizing, to controlling light, preventing pests...

As an engineer who learned how to grow orchids in Taiwan, Mr. Le Minh Tuan said that it is not difficult for players to choose a beautiful orchid that blooms on Tet holiday, but in the growing process, it is not easy to force the orchid to bloom according to the person's wishes, to bloom on the right day, producing from 10 to 30 flowers. Depending on the orchid variety and condition, the engineer will have a special "flowering" process so that after exactly 140 or 170 days, the first flower bud will bloom.

Regardless of cold or hot weather, the temperature in the greenhouse must always be kept stable 24 hours a day through the central air conditioning system and the light intensity must be appropriate.

"During the flowering stage, it is necessary to water and fertilize according to a special process. But the mixing ratio is the "secret" of the business because it took many years of learning, researching and applying to achieve the success it has now," said engineer Tuan.

Having also studied orchid gardens in other countries, the female technical manager Nguyen Suong Mai said that in a life cycle, each orchid must go through 4-5 "new homes", corresponding to each stage of development to be put into larger pots and fed more seaweed.

For orchids to grow well in the greenhouse, each plant must be watered with water filtered through an advanced RO system, keeping the temperature stable, and even when there is a power outage, the backup power system will start up immediately so that all machines can operate like a hospital power system.

"Thanks to such modern techniques, we can control the number of days the flowers bloom, the number of flowers on each branch, the color they bloom... to meet market demand," said Ms. Mai.

Will export orchid seedlings

Vietnam is a large market and the climate is also suitable for growing orchids, but it is 100% dependent on seedlings from Taiwan and China. In order to change this dependence, engineer Nguyen Van Kinh - chairman of Toan Cau Company - determined to master the technology, starting with mastering tissue culture and creating seedlings, but failed many times with "tuition fees" of millions of USD, due to not fully understanding orchid growing and using suboptimal technology.

"I failed many times but I was not discouraged, I put all my money and career into flowers," Mr. Kinh said, adding that he invested 4 million USD to buy tissue culture technology and flower growing technology from Taiwan.

This enterprise has spent hundreds of billions of dong more to invest in building laboratories, orchid embryo culture areas, greenhouses that meet international standards, and importing modern machinery such as central air conditioning, positive pressure systems, circulating air filtration, artificial lighting, etc.

From the project's tissue culture area with strict standards like the vaccine preparation area, each year millions of orchid seedlings of various species and colors are domesticated to serve both the project and farmers and cooperatives in the area. Last year, Mr. Kinh officially introduced the Phalaenopsis orchid variety produced by the company to the market, helping the Vietnamese orchid industry reduce its dependence on imported seeds.

"If we don't have the varieties and can't control the varieties, the Vietnamese flower industry will never be able to rise," Mr. Kinh said.

And with a production capacity of about 10 million seedlings/year, this unit aims to capture 30% of the market share of phalaenopsis orchid seedlings in Vietnam and then export seedlings.

And to achieve its export goal, this company spent tens of millions of USD to buy back 40% of shares of a flower production company in Taiwan, and invited 5 leading Taiwanese professors to Vietnam to set up an international-class laboratory solely to research pesticides for orchids.

Affirming that the Truong Son forest has countless beautiful native orchid species, Mr. Kinh said that this enterprise is investing a large amount of capital to establish a "forest in the city", which is being designed by a French engineer, to create an environment to grow precious orchid species on the Truong Son range.

"If we want Vietnam to be a destination for orchid buyers around the world, we must be self-sufficient in native flower varieties, starting with the precious flowers of Truong Son, to create flowers that adapt to new living conditions," said Mr. Kinh.

Vietnam is a high growth flower consumption market.

According to Mr. Nguyen Van Kinh, each year the world consumes about 800 million Phalaenopsis orchids, worth an estimated 10 billion USD. Of which, Vietnam is one of the markets with high growth rates, with a growth rate of 70-100% per year.

During Tet alone, the Vietnamese market consumes about 12-15 million plants. Therefore, with this high-tech orchid growing project, Mr. Kinh expects the business to earn 25-30 billion VND/ha per year, with a profit of about 30%. For farmers, this profit can be up to 50-70% if the planting is favorable.

Besides investing in flower planting, Mr. Kinh also invited international architects to design the farm space like a 5-star resort, with conference areas, expert housing areas... and especially flower display and introduction areas to welcome international delegations.

In addition, this company also sends many project staff to study and learn in other countries every year to further improve the quality and maturity of the profession.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/kham-pha-vuon-lan-tram-trieu-usd-giua-thu-do-20250111211342666.htm