24-year-old Foreign Trade University valedictorian quits high-paying, easy job to return to hometown to grow clean vegetables

(Dan Tri) - Leaving behind an excellent degree and a job with a stable salary, Quynh Chau chose to do agriculture, finding a new direction to help people have a more worthy income for the effort they put in.

Nguyen Quynh Chau (born 2000, Lam Dong) is the valedictorian of block D07, Foreign Trade University, Ho Chi Minh City. She majored in Foreign Economics and graduated with honors in 2022.

Returning to farming with an excellent degree

Choosing to major in Foreign Economics at the Foreign Trade University, Quynh Chau hopes to study hard to have the opportunity to work at multinational companies with high income. After two years at university, the girl born in 2000 realized that the knowledge she gained was still general and she could not clearly imagine what her job would be like after graduation. During that crisis, Quynh Chau was lucky to read a set of books and completely changed her thinking about her previous career goals. She quickly decided to follow the path of entrepreneurship with the desire to build her own career, not dependent on any company or organization and to be financially free. Sharing with Dan Tri reporter about the decision to switch to agriculture, Quynh Chau said: "I chose to do agricultural business because I grew up in a family of gardeners and vegetable growers. Realizing the difficulties of farmers, working a lot but not getting much in return, I always wanted to apply the knowledge I learned to help people have a higher income from agricultural products, worthy of the effort they put in."

When she learned that her daughter was switching to farming, Quynh Chau's mother was the one who objected the most. Because the family always wanted her to escape the hard work of farming, have a stable office job and not fall into the vicious cycle of "good harvest, low price, good price, bad harvest" like her parents in the past. At times like that, her father was always the one who stood up to protect and support Quynh Chau's choice. Receiving this special "lifebuoy", she seemed to have more motivation to try to find a new direction in a period of many difficulties and challenges. Choosing to start a business on her family's land, Quynh Chau spent a lot of time explaining to her parents about the new farming method, having her own farming team and not requiring as much effort as traditional farming. Each decision was not easy for the Lam Dong girl. Compared to her colleagues at the company, she had to give up many basic benefits such as high salary, care and employee benefits, experiential activities, etc. to be able to pursue her passion and interests. "When I first started working, I thought a lot and felt that I lacked those things compared to my peers. However, I still had teammates who were there for me and always found ways to create small joys together. When I determined the vision of the company in the next few years, I put my faith in my own efforts. As long as I don't give up, the members will receive more than what they have now, be determined to overcome difficulties and wait for the glorious day."

Gen Z and the new vegetable growing model

The idea of ​​starting the project "21m2 Goods" - a clean agricultural operation and management unit - of Quynh Chau and her colleagues came from a visit to an agricultural area in Lam Dong. This is the main supplier of vegetables for Vietnam. She noticed that most households here have a small garden next to their house growing all kinds of vegetables, without spraying pesticides to serve their families. Notably, they only use the vegetables there and do not eat the agricultural products grown in the garden and sold to traders. Quynh Chau quickly came up with the idea of ​​replicating this interesting farming model so that urban people have the opportunity to use clean, organic vegetables from their own gardens. Talking about the special features of the project, the girl born in 2000 confided: "My group is building a new standard in farming called "5-star agriculture". Instead of going through many intermediaries, each family will own "a remote vegetable garden", directly rent land and workers in Da Lat to grow their favorite vegetables, and wait for the harvest to be transported to the kitchen. The entire process of growing vegetables for customers will be guaranteed to be 100% organic and have its own team of staff, agricultural doctors with many years of experience in management and operation". According to Quynh Chau, promoting this model not only creates new job opportunities for people and agricultural engineers but also contributes to redefining consumers' food habits, promoting local economic development and bringing many health benefits.

Each guest has a private garden, has a name tag and can view the garden daily via camera.

Having been in operation for just over 4 months, Quynh Chau's agricultural project has welcomed nearly 200 customers who have registered to rent the garden, along with their satisfaction with the quality of clean vegetables they receive every week. "On average, with 5 square meters of garden land, I will rent it to customers for about 430,000 VND/month, including all expenses such as cultivation, labor, transportation... Because at first, I had to bear some fixed costs, my colleagues and I tried to take advantage of online communication channels to expand the market, bringing the model to many people to maintain a stable revenue level," Chau added. During the process of managing the work, Quynh Chau could not avoid difficulties and challenges. Every time she faced that, the Lam Dong girl and the members of the project always tried to keep a strong spirit, quickly handling unexpected incidents so that clean vegetables could be delivered to customers on time that day. Sharing about her future plans, Quynh Chau hopes to accompany and develop sustainable organic agricultural growing areas in the next 5 years, creating an abundant source of products to supply potential domestic and foreign markets. At the same time, she is also looking for more Gen Z youth (those born between 1997 and 2012) with an entrepreneurial spirit and a love for agriculture to join in building an increasingly strong ecosystem.

Photo: NVCC - Dantri.com.vn