Mr. Chau Thanh Trieu (52 years old, living in Ninh Kieu district, Can Tho city), is currently the head of the club of typical billionaire farmers of Can Tho city. He is the third child in a family of five siblings; graduated from the University of Law, and worked for a time in the court system in Can Tho city. After that, he spent a long time working in the seafood industry in large corporations and companies. There was even a time when he held the position of general director of a large seafood company in the West.
"At that time, I mostly stayed at the company, only going home once every few weeks. I said I was the general director, but in fact I was just an employee. I also thought to myself, what have I gained and lost in 20 years of working for hire... And other factors such as the difficult seafood situation, so I decided to quit my job," Trieu shared and said that the time working in the seafood industry gave him a lot of experience, especially experience in exporting products abroad.
Quitting his job in the aquaculture industry, Mr. Trieu bought land in Co Do district (Can Tho city) but did not know what to plant. At this time, he met the leader of the Can Tho City Farmers' Association and invited him to visit many agricultural models in the West. Among them, he visited longan gardens in Bac Lieu.
Here, he learned a lot of valuable experiences about the longan tree. What was different was that he carefully studied the failures of the longan garden owners. Because according to him, only those who have failed when growing longan can gain a lot of experience. “I learned from the experiences and accumulations of those longan growers. That helped me save 4-5 years of learning about this tree,” Trieu shared.
After a process of research and conclusion, in 2019, Mr. Trieu decided to plant 1,500 longan seedlings on an area of 3 hectares in Co Do district. The special thing is that Mr. Trieu chose to plant longan trees grafted from the rootstock of longan trees (of natural origin), instead of planting seedlings from cuttings.
Mr. Trieu explained that doing so would prevent the longan tree from getting the witch's broom disease, a disease that has devastated many longan growers.
According to Mr. Trieu, the longan he grows from grafting to fruiting and harvesting takes nearly 30 months. Although the growing time until the first fruiting season is long, the tree inherits the good characteristics of wild longan, so it has a strong vitality and is resistant to pests and diseases. The tree bears many fruits, large fruits, thick, dry skin and flesh, sweet taste - meeting export standards to foreign countries.
"To grow longan, I have to have a detailed and specific plan for each stage of the tree. I am gradually replacing chemical fertilizers with organic and biological fertilizers. In particular, I use microbial products to increase the tree's resistance, especially to the problem of acid sulfate soil," said Mr. Trieu, adding that he was guided and supported by lecturers from Can Tho University in the process of growing longan. Currently, Mr. Trieu has expanded the longan growing area to 5 hectares, with 2,000 trees.
To date, Mr. Trieu's longan garden has yielded two harvests. In the first crop, he harvested 16 tons of fruit; in the second crop, the output increased to 30 tons. The export price is quite stable, the export price of the first crop of longan is 90,000 VND/kg, the lowest price when entering the main season is about 55,000 VND/kg.
Share responsibility, enhance reputation
Mr. Trieu decided to grow longan in a safe and environmentally friendly agricultural manner to ensure fruit quality and increase customer trust. Currently, Mr. Trieu's longan garden has met VietGAP standards and has been officially granted a growing area code for export to the US, Japan, Australia and China.
To conveniently monitor and care for longan, Mr. Trieu installed 20 cameras to remotely monitor the longan garden. Every week, he creates a schedule for garden care, fertilization, and watering to effectively manage the cultivation process.
Because of farming according to VietGAP standards, Mr. Trieu has to hire workers to cut the grass instead of spraying weed killer. “If I spray the grass, I only spend 10 million VND per year, but if I hire workers to cut the grass, it costs 30 million VND. I determined that I grow to create clean longan fruit, beautiful appearance, good quality fruit, so that traders will come to me and I can ensure output, not afraid of not being able to sell,” Mr. Trieu expressed and revealed that the longan fruit in his garden is both for export and also supplied to the domestic market with the criteria of clean, quality longan.
Currently, after deducting all expenses, Mr. Trieu earns about 500 million VND per year from 5 hectares of longan. He is also planning to expand the area of this tree.
Mr. Trieu added: “Currently, the government’s policy of investing in the agricultural sector will develop stably in the present and the long-term future. This is an opportunity for the Vietnamese agricultural sector, for farmers and agricultural exporters. To survive and develop sustainably, the actors involved in the agricultural production chain must put responsibility first.
Producers must be responsible for their products, ensuring the safety of users instead of chasing immediate profits. Enterprises participating in export also share responsibility, enhance reputation instead of buying and selling seasonally, forcing down prices, building harmonious links, to develop together."
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