Nurture the desire to get rich with Van Pa pigs

While he was a key leader in a mountainous commune, he suddenly quit his job and changed his economic path by establishing the Van Pa pig farming cooperative. After several years of construction, his business has gradually become stable and effective. He is Do Van Anh, 45 years old, Director of Huong Hiep Agricultural Cooperative, Huong Hiep Commune, Dakrong District.

Mr. Do Van Anh (right) discusses tea varieties for pig and goat farming of Huong Hiep Agricultural Cooperative - Photo: D.V

Quit government job, open livestock farm

After many appointments, one day at the end of February 2025, we met Mr. Anh at a spacious farm in Huong Hiep commune. Sitting on a wooden hut behind a small windy lake, Mr. Anh excitedly told us about his business change.

Going back in time, after graduating from the Department of Public Administration of Hanoi University in 2005, he returned to his hometown to work as Deputy Secretary of the Youth Union of Trieu Nguyen commune. In 2015, Mr. Anh took on the position of Vice Chairman of the People's Council of the commune, and in 2018, he held the position of Acting Chairman of the People's Council of Trieu Nguyen commune. While his career was stable and he was in the structure to have a higher position, in 2021, Mr. Anh suddenly wrote a resignation letter, returned to his hometown to start a business raising pigs and goats. “In fact, in the locality, almost everyone wants to stay with a stable government job. Therefore, when I decided to resign, my relatives and many friends were very surprised. But before resigning, I thought very carefully. I have been passionate about animal husbandry since I first started working for the Youth Union. When I decided to resign, I outlined a plan to register to establish an agricultural and animal husbandry cooperative to create a new direction... I think, I have to dare to think and dare to do to succeed on a new path,” Anh shared.

Huong Hiep Agricultural Cooperative proactively provides food for Van Pa pigs with a sweet potato vegetable garden - Photo: D.V

In 2022, Mr. Anh bought and rented 2 hectares of land in Phu An village, Huong Hiep commune, and registered to establish Huong Hiep agricultural cooperative with two main industries: civil construction and livestock farming. In particular, the livestock farming sector received a lot of enthusiasm and determination with two main livestock types: pigs and goats. With the high and flat land area, Mr. Anh invested all his accumulated capital in investing hundreds of millions of VND to build barns, drill wells, install irrigation systems, grow vegetables, grass... to raise pigs and mountain goats. "At first, I registered to raise a common pig breed, but then I remembered when I was still working for the group and heard about the project to preserve the Van Pa pig breed. Because I was interested in this traditional pig breed, I was determined to pursue it," said Mr. Anh.

Efforts to restore and breed Van Pa pigs

Mr. Anh said that Van Pa pigs are a special breed of pig, a specialty of the Van Kieu and Pa Ko people for a long time. In the past, the ethnic people often caught wild pigs to mate with free-range pigs for reproduction. The piglets were named Van Pa (Van is the name of the Van Kieu people, Pa is the name of the Pa Ko people). “This breed of pig has black skin and hair, a straight back, a long mouth and runs very fast, like an athlete. In the past, the Van Pa pig breed was raised a lot by the Van Kieu and Pa Ko people. But as society developed, many new pig breeds were introduced because they grew quickly and were easy to sell, so there was a time when this breed almost disappeared. Therefore, when opening the cooperative, I wanted to revive this traditional native pig breed to try my hand and gradually bring it back to the market,” Mr. Anh said.

Previously, while still working, in 2021, he searched and bought some female Van Pa pigs from the villagers. He could only raise a few because this breed was a hybrid of wild boar, so it was very aggressive and difficult to raise. At that time, he raised a herd of pigs in his house's rather large garden in Krong Klang town. At that time, he could not find male Van Pa pigs, while this breed did not allow white male pigs to mate. After a while, he bought a male wild boar weighing about 8-10 kg from the villagers and put them in the pen for them to mate.

But at first, they fought fiercely. Then, listening to his father, he cooked fish sauce for the pigs to eat so they would quickly become fond of each other. And it took him 5-6 months, when he saw that they were more tame, then he let the two pigs together to mate. About 3 months later, when the female pig was about to give birth, Anh let her out of the cage.

However, he later discovered that his pigs had gone missing. “Listening to my father, I cooked pork floss and stirred it to create a fragrant smell. Strangely enough, the whole herd, including the parent pigs and piglets, came back from outside the garden through the fence. Needless to say, I was happier than if I had won the lottery. Later, I learned that they had run away because they did not have a natural breeding environment.

From these first breeds, I directly bred them, raised them, and sold them to people; then bought them back to raise again and sell them to the market," Anh said. After 2 years of raising the herd, Anh's farm now has two barns with about 150 - 200 pigs, including breeding sows to develop genetic resources and pork.

Van Pa pigs are raised on the farm of Huong Hiep Agricultural Cooperative - Photo: D.V

Anh Anh said that Van Pa pigs only eat sweet potato leaves, giant tea trees, elephant grass and have very good resistance but grow slowly. These pigs have a short body, a slightly large belly, a curved back, 4 straight legs, 10 to 14 teats and only mate naturally, giving birth twice a year, each litter of 8 to 12 pigs.

Unlike industrial pigs that can be sold after about 3 months of raising, weighing 70 - 80 kg, Van Pa pigs must be raised for 6 months before being sold, each weighing only 25 - 30 kg, 0.4 - 0.5 m tall. Mr. Anh said that on the occasion of the Lunar New Year At Ty - 2025, the Cooperative sold more than 200 Van Pa pigs to customers at a price of 150,000 VND/kg. "Van Pa pigs only eat vegetables and grass, so their meat is very delicious, without any residue of growth stimulants, so they are popular with many people.

Together we rise

We followed Anh to visit the spacious, airy farm with gardens of sweet potatoes, elephant grass, and giant tea trees that were growing lushly green. Along with that was an empty space that had just been leveled with materials and equipment to prepare for building barns. Anh said that the cooperative is currently expanding the scale of the barn to increase the herd to about 300 animals, in order to meet the growing demand of customers.

At the same time, we are considering taking the Van Pa pig brand further. “Raising pigs in general is very risky. But with this Van Pa pig breed, the risk is low, especially in terms of disease because their resistance is very good. Through the swine fever outbreaks in the past few years, many farms had many pigs die, but our cooperative's pigs were almost disease-free. These pigs are easy to raise, fed mainly on vegetables, agricultural by-products and have a fairly high cost, so raising them is quite favorable,” said Mr. Anh.

The output of Van Pa pigs is currently very stable. In addition, Huong Hiep Agricultural Cooperative also creates jobs for many 6 cooperative members, mainly Van Kieu and Pa Ko ethnic people with stable income, an average of 7.5 million VND/person/month (men work in civil construction, women work in animal husbandry).

Having been with the cooperative from the beginning, Ms. Ho Thi Bong (32 years old) in Phu An village shared: “Before, my husband and I did all kinds of jobs but our income was low and unstable, just enough to raise 2 children. Now, taking care of and raising pigs and goats is not too hard but stable and the salary is quite high, enough to cover a comfortable life. My husband and I are very excited.”

Vice Chairman of Dakrong District People's Committee Le Dai Loi said that in addition to contributing to the conservation and restoration of Van Pa pig breed, Huong Hiep Agricultural Cooperative also provides breeds, creates jobs for local people, and contributes to poverty reduction in the locality. Mr. Loi commented that Van Pa pig specialty has the opportunity to become a brand and a typical product of Quang Tri province if it is invested in development, expands the scale of breeding, and increases output to supply the market in the coming time.

German Vietnamese

Source: https://baoquangtri.vn/nuoi-khat-vong-lam-giau-voi-lon-van-pa-192426.htm