Pioneer in clean agricultural products

From the fields, with a passion for producing clean, safe agricultural products for health, Ms. Le Thi Tha, Chairwoman of the Board of Directors and Director of Hoa Phong High-Quality Agricultural Service Cooperative, has gradually made this brand become familiar in the market. Currently, Hoa Phong both produces and trades products in the rice chain, vegetable chain and other diverse foods and consumer goods.

From the rice plant…

Born and raised in Doan Xa village, Hong Phong commune (now Hong Phong ward, Dong Trieu city), Ms. Le Thi Tha has been attached to the fields since the famous yellow sticky rice fields of this land. She said: My father is the person who has the largest area of yellow sticky rice in the commune. Following my father's experience, when I received the field, I also planted 100% of the area with yellow sticky rice.

Hoa Phong Cooperative's Golden Sticky Rice product is part of the safe food supply chain.

Later, when the locality had a policy of converting ineffective rice growing areas to aquaculture, along with the existing area, her family boldly accepted the transfer of land from households planned to become an aquaculture area with an area of nearly 3 hectares. At that time, her family was one of the first households to raise intensive tilapia in Quang Ninh, was granted a family farm certificate and received many certificates of merit from the central, provincial and local governments. She recalled: At that time, households raised quite small-scale livestock. Therefore, I opened a feed agency for livestock, poultry and aquatic products to provide input products at low prices and at the same time consume products for people in the area...

In 2013, from the capital of animal feed business, she established Hoa Phong High Quality Agricultural Service Cooperative. Recalling those early days, she shared: When establishing Hoa Phong Cooperative as a founder, I wanted to invest in the agricultural sector because the context at that time in the market of dirty food - clean food was causing confusion for consumers, safe farming and raising methods were still in the transition stage, there were many incorrect views, even mistakes... causing long-term damage to consumers' health. Therefore, we wanted to invest in the agricultural sector to develop clean, safe agriculture with local people according to VietGAP standards, moving towards organic agriculture...

Products of Hoa Phong Cooperative are cultivated according to clean and safe agricultural criteria. Photo: NVCC

Novel model

Her idea was enthusiastically supported by local leaders, who helped and created conditions for the cooperative to use land in the Cot market area (Dong Trieu) to create a point for introducing products and transactions, connecting localities in the area. To realize the idea of cultivating clean and safe vegetables and fruits, she chose a large area of land, convenient for transportation and clean water, which is now a field in Xuan Son ward, to make a point by renting land from local farmers.

She said: The district and commune leaders at that time were very supportive, informing the farmers in the commune that they would lend land to Hoa Phong Cooperative, paying farmers one quintal of rice per sao per year. The farmers could return to work for Hoa Phong Cooperative and receive monthly salaries. The model was very new at that time, so at first the people were very confused, worried about being cheated, having their land taken over... because before that, the people did it themselves, took care of themselves, and planted rice, sometimes they made a profit, sometimes they lost, after deducting expenses, they only had a few hundred thousand left per sao. Therefore, the initial work was very difficult to change the people's mindset, some families said they understood right away, but others had to be consulted many times, for months.

After about half a year, the model began to stabilize, the cooperative rented 13.9 hectares of land from 165 farming households; nearly one hundred farming households returned to work for the cooperative, most of them middle-aged and elderly women. To ensure farming, she hired a management team from other provinces, choosing people with degrees and in-depth experience in farming. After about a year of farming and transfer, this work was taken from the local people themselves...

Agricultural products of Hoa Phong Cooperative are supplied to companies, factories and retail at the display and transaction points at Cot market (Dong Trieu).

She shared: The farmers were very excited afterwards. I will never forget the story of a 75-year-old woman who cried when she received her first salary because it was the first time she had received 3 million VND. At that time, the common life of farmers was still difficult, like that old woman, her children were also poor, people at that age all went to catch crabs and snails, earning only a few tens of thousands of VND per day...

Dare to think, dare to do, devote all her heart and money to investing in the fields, work hard in the fields every day, she watches the vegetable beds grow smoothly, the trees grow lushly, bloom and bear fruit, and finds it extremely joyful and attractive. As a new, typical model, after being put into stable operation, it has welcomed many delegations from localities to come to learn and visit every year.

Joy and worry also come from there. She said, at first it was very difficult because not many companies were willing to consume her agricultural products while the ten or so hectares of vegetables had high yields, such as green squash in the first crop of 2013 yielded more than 100 tons, eggplant yielded nearly a ton each day, and pumpkins of all kinds... making her have to rush to find places to consume. Then "looked to the sky, looked to the ground, looked to the clouds" because just one hailstorm at the end of the year caused damage of several billion dong.

Until now, she still cannot forget the story of “cabbage blooming” during Tet holiday more than ten years ago. The whole vegetable growing area had 6-7 hectares of cabbage for export to the South, but due to hail, the cabbage cracked and bloomed wildly in the fields. The cabbage cut down for sale was not even enough to pay for workers to harvest, they ate and slept with cabbage, the cabbage was piled from home to the field, and if they could not sell it all, they had to plow and harrow to make fertilizer… Most recently, storm No. 3 blew away 13,000 square meters of the cooperative’s greenhouse.

She confided: Investing in agriculture is extremely difficult, without perseverance and passion, you cannot do it. Without enough money, you cannot survive, and if you fail once, you may not be able to recover. There were times when I had to borrow from relatives, to the point that someone said that if I went bankrupt, it would affect the whole family, because relatives borrowed every penny they had...

Hoa Phong Cooperative produces and supplies many types of specialty rice, which are popular in the market today.

In return, her determination was supported by many local leaders and helped by her friends and relatives. The model also helped many farmers. She analyzed: During natural disasters, we suffered losses in products but farmers still had jobs. For example, if we lost two billion, it was not a total loss but it was also part of the salary paid to workers, so I was still determined to do it...

Desire to increase the value of agricultural products

Up to now, the vegetable area in Xuan Son has been maintained by Hoa Phong Cooperative for more than 12 years of land lease and cultivation, and now the unit has expanded to many other locations in the form of linking the consumption of clean and safe agricultural products with people in neighboring wards, communes and other districts and towns. Along with that, the Cooperative also has nearly ten hectares of land from conversion and purchase from people for production. Hoa Phong is currently one of the leading units in the province's OCOP program and participates in the safe food supply chain with the product of Golden Flower Sticky Rice. In addition to providing clean and safe agricultural products to the domestic market, Hoa Phong also cooperates with a number of localities to grow vegetables for export to Korea.

Growing melons in a greenhouse on the field of Hoa Phong Cooperative. Photo: NVCC.

However, she is still passionate about investing deeply in the agricultural sector, expanding production, and deep processing to increase the value of agricultural products. She analyzed: Dong Trieu yellow sticky rice is more delicious than yellow sticky rice from many other localities because it is fragrant, sticky, and rich in flavor. This type of delicious rice is sold for up to 70,000 VND/kg in some places, but at the current selling price, Dong Trieu people who grow this sticky rice do not make much profit. That is just an example, so I am thinking that I have to produce cleanly and process, increase the value... Now we are making products according to VietGAP standards, and will move forward to making organic products.

With the intention of building a brand and reputation from clean, safe agricultural products for sustainable development, she has oriented her two children to study agriculture to establish themselves, build a career and lead Hoa Phong Cooperative to develop more strongly. She confided: Farmers in the future are modern farmers, must have qualifications, heart and vision. They must have the heart to produce clean, healthy products and must have the investment conditions to be able to stand firm, do agriculture long-term and sustainably. Although I have to go through many difficulties, I still think that I have chosen the right path, built a model that many places desire, and am proud to contribute a small part to my hometown Dong Trieu in particular, Quang Ninh in general.

Ngoc Mai

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