THAI NGUYEN Looking at the lush green fields on the hills of Yen Ninh, no one would think that it had just revived after the storms that the young director encountered.
Mr. Hoang Khac Can (far right), Director of DK Natural Products Joint Stock Company (Yen Ninh Commune, Phu Luong District, Thai Nguyen) instructs people on techniques for caring for and harvesting the spoon plant. Photo: Dao Thanh.
The tree of San Chi's son
The day the spoon plant appeared, the San Chi village in Yen Ninh commune (Phu Luong district, Thai Nguyen province) was in an uproar. Some households accepted to plant it, but many others shook their heads. Then the plant took root, clinging to the hills, and after 6 months it knew how to "bring money" to the growers, so the whole village rushed to expand the area. Then again, the plant settled down with many difficulties and hardships.
The San Chi people in Yen Ninh often talk about Associate Professor, Dr. Tran Van On, a lecturer at the Department of Botany, Hanoi University of Pharmacy, an outstanding son of the people. Associate Professor, Dr. Tran Van On was born and raised in Yen Ninh commune. In 2006, he returned to his hometown to conduct a scientific project on screening medicinal plants that lower blood sugar and discovered the small-leafed spoon plant. The nutrients of the low, bowl-shaped hill of his hometown are suitable for the strange spoon plant, which has strong health and high medicinal properties. He thought to himself: This is the plant that can help the San Chi people in his hometown live a prosperous life.
In 2010, after more than 1 year of successful testing in the hills of his hometown, the spoon plant with its very good effect in supporting the treatment of hypoglycemia of Dr. On quickly spread from a small hilltop, becoming a raw material area of up to 5 hectares. The plant variety brought high economic efficiency of up to 200 million VND/ha, making everyone in Yen Ninh happy. In 2011, 20 supporters followed Dr. On to establish DK Natural Products Joint Stock Company.
Despite its many outstanding advantages, the small-leafed spoon plant has the disadvantage of being toxic. Dr. On determinedly went to the forest to search and collect the branches and species of spoon plants in each region and planted them in many different locations, then took the leaves to study and select individuals to plant separately for propagation. After 10 years, in 2019, the large-leafed spoon plant was born and appeared in many places on the market, making up for the shortcomings of the small-leafed spoon plant.
Big-leafed gymnema plant helps treat diabetes and stabilizes blood sugar effectively. Photo: Dao Thanh.
The benefits and reputation of the Gymnema Sylvestre plant in treating diabetes and stabilizing blood sugar have spread far and wide from the village to the commune and even to the capital Hanoi. In 2012, a large pharmaceutical company sought to cooperate with DK Natural Products Joint Stock Company to purchase high-quality products extracted from the Gymnema Sylvestre plant. During peak periods, orders were worth up to 2 billion VND per year.
But then, being busy with work in Hanoi, Dr. On could not manage all the company's work. Without close management and supervision, farmers went astray. Each household still maintained their gardens, but only a few households were able to form a systematic raw material area, ensuring organic standards and being able to sell. Once upon a time, the spoon plant was struggling...
"The customer brought me back to the tablespoon"
For the past month, every morning, young man Hoang Khac Can, Director of DK Natural Products Joint Stock Company, has woken up early to go to the spoon fields to check the automatic irrigation system that is being constructed. With regular watering, the spoon hills grow rapidly. Instead of having 2 harvests a year like before, now they can have 4 harvests.
Hoang Khac Can shared that the spoon plant has been deeply rooted in his entire young life. The plant has helped his company earn billions, but there were times when he didn’t even have a few hundred thousand dong to pay his workers. The entire company was left with only him and the spoon plants whose leaves had been eaten away by worms.
Working and reception area of DK Natural Products Joint Stock Company. Photo: Dao Thanh.
Hoang Khac Can's father died early, his mother alone worked hard to raise him growing up by growing tea and cassava in the poor countryside. After graduating from Thai Nguyen University of Agriculture and Forestry, his mother took him to meet Dr. Tran Van On, a cousin. Dr. On told Can: If you want to love medicinal herbs, come along, learn the job, gain experience and have money to cover your living expenses. From then on, Can traveled all over the country, from the North to the South to medicinal herb regions to help out. His entrepreneurial spirit and passion for medicinal herbs also seeped into him.
In 2018, after accumulating enough experience and life capital, Can was assigned by Mr. On to work as a manager, then as Director of DK Natural Products Joint Stock Company. In the following years, in addition to selling through direct distribution channels, he also sold online on social networking platforms. There were many orders, some days he sold 300 million VND worth of goods. Can thought he would soon be rich!
However, when business boomed, the company had few employees so it could not take good care of customers. Meanwhile, the supply of goods could not be controlled in quality, the company gradually lost customers, business declined, and groups of workers gradually left the company.
In 2022, there was no rain for many days, then suddenly a storm came, heavy rain as if someone had broken a large lake and poured water down from the sky. After that rain, the sun continued to shine. One morning, Can went to visit the spoon garden, he was shocked to the point of being speechless when he saw the garden that had been green the day before, but the next day suddenly had no leaves, the young shoots were broken and withered.
Organic standard raw material area of DK Natural Products Joint Stock Company in Yen Ninh commune, Phu Luong district, Thai Nguyen. Photo: Dao Thanh.
On the trellises of spoons, there were swarms of green bugs lying around. The villagers said that strange pests often appeared in the years when the weather changed. They had to quickly invite experts from the Agricultural University in Hanoi to advise and kill the strange pests. But by the time the experts arrived, the garden had been attacked by strange pests, causing damage up to 70%, and because of the need to spray pesticides, the entire area could not be used.
That year the company lost money, while the workers still had to be paid. The company's capital was exhausted. It was so difficult that he couldn't even borrow 10 million. He was in a deadlock.
I asked: So how did you overcome the difficulties?
Need to answer: It was a phone call from a customer who had been using the company's products for nearly 10 years, wondering why such a good product was no longer available?
"I woke up because Mr. On and the village land with the mountains and hills of my hometown gave me the chance to come to the spoon plant, so why give up? That failure is not scary, money may be lost but clearly I have learned a lot, from accumulating knowledge for myself, defining clear goals and knowing what core values are worth cherishing. Saying that does not mean that tomorrow I will succeed and difficulties and challenges are still waiting for me ahead. But it was that guest who brought me back to the spoon plant and I was able to get up", Can confided.
The Yen Ninh noon was peaceful, the sunlight through the leaves made the hillsides and the fields of Gymnema Sylvestre more lush and green. Not far away, in the solar drying factory, the aroma of Gymnema Sylvestre was fragrant. Can shared his radiant face: "I just received a text message informing me that there is a new order for 2 products that have achieved 4 OCOP stars of the company: Gymnema Sylvestre tea and Gymnema Sylvestre compressed tea".
The spoon plant planted in Yen Ninh soil will start to yield harvest after 6 months. This plant can keep its roots for up to 10 years and the more leaves are cut and branches are pruned, the healthier and more developed the plant becomes.
Currently, the raw material area for growing medicinal herbs of DK Natural Products Joint Stock Company is 4 hectares, of which 2.1 hectares meet organic standards, the remaining area is being cultivated in an organic direction. The output of dried spoon sold on the market of the Company is nearly 4 tons/year. The sale of spoon extract is also gradually restored by the Company with a revenue of about 250 million VND/year. The Company hopes to expand the raw material area to hundreds of hectares meeting organic standards.
Source
Comment (0)