Xuan Que Strawberry Cooperative, Co Noi Commune, Mai Son District, Son La Province is the facility with the largest strawberry growing area in the locality. With nearly ten years of working with the cooperative, Mr. Nguyen Van Nam, Director of Xuan Que Strawberry Cooperative, has awakened the potential of a large mountainous area.
King Strawberry
The production workshop and headquarters of Mr. Nam's Xuan Que strawberry cooperative is located on Highway 37. His family's large plot of land extends to the foot of the mountain. Inside, there is a system of modern machinery for drying, packaging, and packing fruit, as well as a cold storage. This system of machinery serves the cooperative's fruit processing and preparation.
His cooperative is famous throughout the region for its royal strawberries. It turns out that the strawberry gardens produce very large strawberries. They are as big as a drinking cup, which is 3 to 4 times larger than regular strawberries. Each fruit weighs more than 100 grams. Thanks to excellent investment and care, Co Noi land can produce such large strawberries. According to Mr. Nam, the price of this type is not cheap, over 1 million VND per kilogram.
Strawberries weighing over 100 grams from Xuan Que Strawberry Cooperative are sold for over 1 million VND per kilogram. Photo: Pham Hoai.
Before the tea break, he took us to visit the cooperative's production facility. From Highway 37, going about 1km inland, there is a large production area. In the middle of the rugged mountains, there is a production area as wide as a stork's flight, several hundred hectares, like a large model field in the lowlands. Each plot and each plot has grown lush green with strawberries. It is worth mentioning that each production area has invested in a modern irrigation system. Each strawberry plant is equipped with an automatic irrigation nozzle.
Strawberries are planted in rows, one area connected to another, running all the way to the foot of the mountain. The cooperative's production area is also well planned. Mr. Nam walks out into the field as if he has returned to his forte. He walks quickly, his mouth talking while his hands working, he checks each strawberry plant. Each plant is healthy and green.
"This is the Ha Na strawberry variety from Japan. This variety has strong plants, high yield and excellent quality. The entire 50ha area of the cooperative is planted with this strawberry variety," Mr. Nam proudly boasted.
Standing in front of the vast field, I calculated that each hectare of strawberries yielded 15 to 20 tons. How would Mr. Nam and the members of the cooperative consume them? It seemed that Mr. Nam was not worried about my concerns.
"For the past few years, the cooperative has not had enough strawberries to sell. No matter how much we harvest, everyone comes to buy it all. We are still figuring out where to get land to grow strawberries," Nam shared.
According to Mr. Nam's calculation, it costs over 300 million VND to invest in growing 1 hectare of strawberries. Each hectare yields about 20 tons, with a selling price of 50,000 VND/kg, growers earn a billion VND. Photo: Pham Hoai.
According to Mr. Nam's calculation, it costs over 300 million VND to invest in growing 1 hectare of strawberries. Each hectare yields about 20 tons, with a selling price of 50,000 VND/kg, growers earn a billion VND, not a small amount. Strawberry plants are not picky about soil. People just plant them and they will grow and develop. That's why the Co Noi people call strawberries a rich-making plant. Many plots of land cannot grow corn or vegetables, but strawberries still grow.
Building a nationwide sales system
From a small strawberry farm at first, the cooperative has now grown 50 hectares of strawberries, with an estimated yield of about 1,000 tons. Consuming all of this huge amount of strawberries is a difficult problem. Recalling the early days of growing strawberries, Mr. Nam encountered many difficulties.
Consumers are familiar with Moc Chau's strawberry products. No one believes when talking about strawberries grown in Co Noi. To sell his products, Mr. Nam painstakingly brought strawberries back to Hanoi to introduce them. He introduced the products to every fruit shop. Not stopping there, he also took every passenger bus parked at Co Noi intersection to "persuade" customers to sell strawberries. No matter how he talked about the product, the shops and picky customers did not believe him.
From a small strawberry farm at first, Xuan Que Strawberry Cooperative has now grown 50 hectares of strawberries, with an estimated yield of about 1,000 tons. Photo: Pham Hoai.
From a few stores that initially trusted him to import goods, gradually the door to strawberry consumption also opened for his family. Strawberries grown in Co Noi have a stronger aroma and sweetness than those grown elsewhere. With experience in marketing strawberries from previous years, he also built a sales system via Facebook, YouTube and TikTok... With each channel he opened, he attracted a large number of customers.
With a good reputation and a strategy for selling products, Mr. Nam has connected a large product consumption system from the South to the North. From having difficulty selling products, the cooperative is now worried about not having enough products to sell.
"Plant" 3 houses to grow strawberries
Nam’s journey to establish the cooperative is also filled with hardship and pride. Growing strawberries is not difficult, but investing in growing strawberries requires money. Each hectare of strawberries costs from 300 to 400 million VND. Not every farmer has enough potential to pursue it. Yet, Nam, who was at risk of bankruptcy, dared to switch to growing strawberries. Recalling his startup days, Nam is still in shock.
His parents were from Ninh Binh. In 1977, they moved to Co Noi to reclaim land. The family was already poor, and the parents had 7 children. That difficult and deprived life gradually passed. At the age of 18, Nam got married. Previously, the whole strawberry farm was planted with corn and cassava. The agricultural products did not compensate for the labor of the growers.
Those years of hardship and deprivation gradually passed. At that time, the pig farming movement was spreading. Mr. Nam also boldly invested in building barns and raising hundreds of pigs. From a farmer who knew nothing about large-scale farming, he built a large barn system. Failure was inevitable. The loans became more and more frequent. There was a period when the money made was not enough to pay the interest to the bank.
Pig farming was not going anywhere, Mr. Nam boldly discussed with his family, "mortgaged" the land use right certificate to buy 2 cars to transport tourists. When he had just bought the car last year, the next year the Covid epidemic broke out. The transportation business was disrupted. He quickly sold the 2 cars and lost more than half a billion VND.
The strawberry production area of Xuan Que Strawberry Cooperative has invested in a modern irrigation system. Photo: Pham Hoai.
That year in Co Noi commune, there were a few households that successfully planted strawberries and achieved high economic efficiency. That same year, Mr. Nam borrowed money to continue investing in a new project. That year, he planted 5,000m2.
"Strawberry plants made me extremely confused. I didn't understand anything about how to grow and care for them. But I was still determined to learn and grow them. I believed that strawberry plants would save my life," Mr. Nam recalled his decision to open a new business direction for himself.
In the first crop, Mr. Nam earned more than half a billion VND from his strawberry garden. With a passion for business, he expanded the area 4 to 5 times in the following crop. Each year, the strawberry plants brought him a large income. Mr. Nam paid off his debt and boldly bought more land to expand production.
Not stopping at the household scale, in 2017, he also boldly established Xuan Que Strawberry Cooperative, this was an opportunity for him to expand the scale of operations, as well as increase the value of strawberries. Up to now, the Cooperative has become the largest strawberry growing unit in Mai Son. The dream of getting rich of the mountain man has not stopped there. He is also cherishing the idea of growing strawberries organically.
Source: https://danviet.vn/o-son-la-co-mot-noi-trong-ra-loai-dau-tay-qua-khong-lo-the-nay-day-trong-thay-ai-cung-muon-can-20250126212748556.htm
Comment (0)