Give up salary 300 million/month

Graduated from the Faculty of Petroleum, Hanoi University of Mining and Geology in 2001, Mr. Hoang Thanh Tung (born in 1979, registered in Ho Chi Minh City, residing in Phu Thien town, Phu Thien district, Gia Lai province) has nearly 20 years of experience working in the oil and gas industry.

Mr. Tung said that after graduating, he started working at the Construction, Survey and Repair of Marine Works Enterprise, part of the Vietsovpetro Oil and Gas Joint Venture Enterprise at the Vung Tau City Oil and Gas Port. His main job was to manufacture drilling rigs for oil and gas exploitation.

During his time working here, Mr. Tung was transferred to many units. During the period 2013-2018, he was appointed as Head of PVD Deepwater Oil Rig Operations Department at Hai Thach and Moc Tinh fields offshore Vietnam.

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General Director of Ricky Farm Group Hoang Thanh Tung, owner of 3 pig farms with nearly 100,000 pigs/year and many birdhouses. Photo: Tran Hoan

During his work, Mr. Tung had many opportunities to gain practical experience in countries such as China, Singapore, Algeria, etc. His income in some months reached nearly 300 million VND. With such a "huge" amount of money, many people would be content to stick with this job. But Mr. Tung had another choice, he decided to change his career to raise pigs and take care of swiftlets.

Talking about the opportunity to become the owner of many birdhouses and pig farms, Mr. Tung said: During a business trip to the US, he visited a Vietnamese person's house. There, they had a farm raising 10,000 chickens, so he wanted to experiment. However, when he returned to survey the markets in Ho Chi Minh City, he found that he could not meet the demand.

“In 2016, a friend working at a bank suggested raising pigs. After analyzing it, I found it reasonable, so I contacted CP Vietnam Livestock Joint Stock Company and together with a friend, borrowed money to build a reserve pig farm with a scale of 12,000 pigs in Binh Phuoc at a cost of 39.5 billion VND,” Mr. Tung recalled.

Initially, due to his lack of legal knowledge, Mr. Tung encountered many difficulties. Along with fierce competition from other well-known businesses, the livestock farming activities were not effective, so he had to transfer them to someone else. However, this was a valuable lesson that helped him succeed later.

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Mr. Tung has nearly 20 years of experience working in the oil and gas industry with an income of hundreds of millions of VND/month. Photo: NVCC

In 2019, Mr. Tung quit his job in the oil and gas industry and went to the Central Highlands to start a business. After finding land, he built a pig farm in Ea Huar commune, Buon Don district (Dak Lak province) with a scale of 32,000 pigs/year, in the form of contract farming for CP Vietnam Livestock Joint Stock Company.

His company invests in building barns, equipment, environmental treatment systems, and managing livestock workers. CP Vietnam Livestock Joint Stock Company takes care of the breeding stock, feed, techniques, and vaccines. When it comes time to sell the animals, CP Vietnam will cover the output.

Revenue is calculated based on pig weight (kg) multiplied by price of 5,000-5,500 VND/kg.

With this form, farmers do not have to worry about fluctuations in output, market and feed prices.

Profit over 7 billion VND/year

From the initial success, at the end of 2020, Mr. Tung chose Phu Thien district (Gia Lai) as a "base" and built 2 pig farms in Ia Sol and Ia Peng communes, with a scale of more than 30,000 pigs/farm/year.

Currently, with a total of about 96,000 pigs/year, the owner of Ricky Farm Group has brought in nearly 40 billion VND in revenue. After deducting loan interest, labor, and operating costs, the profit from pig farming each year is over 7 billion VND.

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Pig farm in Ia Sol commune (Phu Thien district) invested 135 billion VND. Photo: Tran Hoan

“I am waiting for approval to build a farm in Chu A Thai commune (Phu Thien district) with a scale of 48,000 pigs, increasing the total number of pigs to nearly 150,000 pigs/year,” Mr. Tung revealed.

While raising pigs in Phu Thien, seeing the many swiftlets flying, the owner of 3 pig farms "got excited" about raising birds. After 2 years of studying and researching, Mr. Tung established Pho Yen Cooperative, calling on friends to contribute investment capital. Although it has just started operating, the swiftlet village in Thang Loi 3 village, Ia Sol commune with 15 houses (of which Mr. Tung owns 7) has brought in an income of nearly 3 billion VND/year. After deducting expenses, the profit from raising swiftlets also brings him 600 million VND/year.

"In addition to consuming raw bird's nests from members of the cooperative, I also buy from many households in the area to deeply process bird's nest products. Not only retail, from January 2024, I have exported bird's nest orders worth 231 million VND to Tan Cang Gantry Joint Stock Company (HCMC)," said Mr. Tung.

In addition, Pho Yen Cooperative is also building barns to raise ostriches, spotted deer and weasels. Mr. Tung said that in the near future, they will raise about 70 ostriches for tourism, and focus mainly on 300 spotted deer and 1,000 weasels.

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The bird's nest village in Thang Loi 3 village, Ia Sol commune has 15 houses, of which Mr. Tung owns 7. Photo: Tran Hoan

“In Phu Thien district, there are only 8 spotted deer sponsored by the rural agricultural development program. After the successful pilot of raising spotted deer, we will expand it to members and other communes, and in the future, we will build a total herd of 5,000 deer in the entire district,” said the head of Pho Yen Cooperative.

When enough deer antlers are collected, the cooperative will invest in a drying and powdering line to create capsules for functional foods; in addition, it will provide deer breeds for market development.

Speaking to VietNamNet, Mr. Mai Ngoc Quy, Deputy Head of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Phu Thien district, said that Ricky Farm has 2 farms operating in the area. Through inspection, the farm ensures livestock farming conditions, such as wastewater treatment system, facilities...

During the construction of the farm, the company invested in expanding about 8km of rural roads, supporting people to connect to electricity lines to pump water for irrigation in the fields; at the same time, creating jobs for more than 100 workers, of which 80% are ethnic minorities.