The Saigon Business Newspaper had an interview with Mr. Nguyen Van Hien, the Chairman of the Board of Chanh Viet Company, who built the value chain for limes. Located next to the National Highway N2 passing through Ben Luc district, Long An province is a new factory being completed by Chanh Viet to increase its lime processing capacity. It is also the starting point of a zigzag concrete road, motorbikes go back and forth to bring workers into the long lime garden, transport materials for cultivating limes, and bring fruits to the factory. One hundred and fifty hectares of Chanh Viet Company has started the nearly 7,000-hectare lime growing area of Ben Luc district – making the lime tree be one of the important, high-value crops in the Mekong Delta.
Nội dung bài viết
From construction field, how did you start with agriculture?
Construction is still my main occupation, and agriculture is my charm. At first, like many other people, having a little bit of money, people would buy some pieces of land to save, then to build a farm with a garden, pond, and barn for friends to gather on weekends, Because of the job of construction, there are many works, every day and night, they need a place to relax. But after buying and leaving the land, it feels wasteful, I want to do something but don’t know what to do, simply love to do something on the land. In the past, in my hometown – Que Trung (Que Son district, Quang Nam province), a house with a plot of land with a few acres was already large, now standing in the middle of the vast southern land without doing anything is a pity. I’ve been tinkering for six or seven years and I’ve come up with the basics like now.
But why did you choose the seedless lime tree?
Eresearched many types of trees but eventually determined this land is suitable for seedless lime trees. Thinking at that time was that I had information, perhaps more knowledge than farmers, there must be some way to do better than them. We also thought that we had to do farming differently, because farmers sold the land to us, while we do farming on the land at the same way as the farmers do, leading to nothing! Even after growing limes, I did not think to process them. Slowly remove step by step, what we can’t do is to consult with scientists. Since then, we have determined that growing limes follows organic methods and must be associated with the export market to increase value, so from the beginning, we have followed the European production process.
How did you go from just exporting fresh limes to Europe to form the value chain of lime products like today?
Plants grown according to organic methods, all fruits cannot be equally large and beautiful, fruit of type 1 qualified for exporting to Europe is only about 30-40% of the output. The rest, if selling at low prices like mass planting, will not be worth the effort, but will return to compete with farmers. Therefore, we think many directions for processing products from our fresh limes. According to scientific information, lime essential oil contains more than 20 anti-cancer active ingredients, so it is very precious and has high value. The oil available on the market is mainly mixed with chemicals and flavorings. We embarked on research on extraction with the initial result: Peel of 10 kilograms of fresh lime only extract 10 milliliters of essential oil. After removing the peel, the rest of lime must be discarded. I think that when I was a little boy, every time I had a cold, my parents made a glass of lemonade to help, why would I discard this valuable drink, so we researched to make a lime juicer. Initially I intended to donate to schools but due to requirement of a certificate of food hygiene and safety, so it was difficult. Again, I consulted with scientists. As a result, products from fresh limes were made one after another: lime essential oil, lime juice, dried lime powder, canned soft drinks, dried lime leaves, dried lime slices. These products were brought to trade fairs and exhibitions. There is a folk saying “squeezing a lime and remove its peel”, we don’t discard anything in the lime. Lime residue can also make candy and jam. The juice and lime peel were provided to Hoa Ca Crocodile Co., Ltd., so that they combine with crocodile extract to make medicine for children with vitreous bone disease (an internationally recognized study that treats the disease effectively). Spices include lime pepper salt, lime chili salt, dried lime slices or dried lime leaves to retain the greenness and nutrition as a seasoning for food processing. Just do it one by one…
Then how did you bring the lime to a higher value?
The profit achieved from the lime juice supplied to a number of Japanese businesses is the first one that help us have sufficient finance to operate. Although we exported our products according to European standards, customers did not believe it and they still went down to visit the farm in order to check the raw material area, the variety, and how to grow the lime trees. Negotiating a contract to supply canned lemonade with Australian customers also took us nearly a year. They experimented with us from sweetness, acidity, aroma… It is glad that a global business enterprise orders a large quantity, a few containers of canned lemonade every day and the demand is much greater. Fortunately, we are people working in construction field, having a little understanding of machinery, so we found equipment to coordinate with mechanical engineers to design accordingly, then tinkered with recipes for lime processing. This technique was not known before. We wander around in the city, so we know a lot of customer information, from which we also persuaded Taiwanese and Indian partners to buy limes for farmers. They invested in both varieties, and buying juice to extract raw materials to export to their countries. Our direction is deep processing to raise the whole chain, farmers live well, the chain will be better.
What is your point of view on business and profit in the agricultural sector?
We have not put too much emphasis on profit. When I first came here, Melaleuca trees were immense. At 4 p.m. daily, I had to return to Ho Chi Minh City because I couldn’t stand mosquitoes and other insects. The first thing we did was pull the electricity back (2011). With electricity, farmers drill wells to get clean water instead of using river water and rain water. If we want to move on swampy land, we have to build a concrete road to travel, motorbikes can crept into the garden. When we can do the basics, the State invests more heavily in infrastructure, cars go to the hamlet. From 150 hectares, now the whole lime growing area is nearly 7,000 hectares. It was a great pleasure for us.
Building a brand of agricultural products is very difficult…
We are not in a hurry; we have to prepare enough for Chanh Viet Company’s brand CHAVI. The market is huge. Large corporations are willing to let us make products according to their brand, but we do not choose that way. Or there is a partner that agrees to buy our processed products but requires an increase in product preservation time. Thus, there must be an additive. But we don’t think we are to the point of “trying to eat sticky rice”, in the short term it will benefit a bit but in the long run, it will lose. Following them means not identifying the core values of Chanh Viet. The hardest things have been done, have identified clean products, then keep trying. The market trend is clean products, the opportunities are always large.
When will your CHAVI branded products be available in the domestic market?
Currently, I know that the cost of the domestic sales channel is quite high, and I have to give debt up to 45 days, while our processing capacity is not enough to export to foreign market. The goal of Chanh Viet is now to focus on making good products for exporting. To be honest, we already have a domestic business plan, preparing to sell on online channels after processing capacity of our factory gets better.
What do you think about Vietnam agricultural products in the chain of lime-based products made by Chanh Viet Company?
Farming without processing is of very low value. Monthly, we export about 20 tons of our fresh limes to Europe with the price of about 1USD/kg. The price is not high compared to that at the market or supermarket, sometimes about 30,000 VND/kg. But farmers do not enjoy such good and stable prices, because their products takes a few intermediate levels to come to the market. Large-scale farming cannot be tinkered with, must know what plants need scientifically, not just by feeling. In order to have a large organic farming area, it is necessary to study the criteria of soil, water, manure, care, productivity… We have to consult with experts from universities. In this case, these experts understand our enthusiasm of lime tree, so they wholeheartedly share their knowledge and experience on planting lime trees. When I brought our first products to Prof. Doctor. Vo Tong Xuan, he was very supportive and encouraging our methods of growing and having such kinds of products. Every year, some US universities take students to our farm to visit, learn and also send essential oil experts to help us. Currently, Chanh Viet Company has also signed cooperation memoranda with US Chapman University and Malaysia Putra University Putra.
What do you think about sustainability in agriculture?
As our grandparents said, eat well and wear durable. Developing a product chain from an agricultural or industrial crop following the trend of sustainable farming and deep processing will be of great value. However, but it must be step by step, understanding the market, be combined with farmers and scientists in order to bring up the value chain together. What we have done as a very good example for farmers to follow, when their life gets better, the new product chain will be durable. I’m sure when the business is decent, the profits will come and it’s scalable. As when our Japan partner saw that our lime trees were organically cultivated, they continued to order to plant papaya and grow bananas, and consume them all. Many Taiwan partners order passion fruit, buy it all with the clean and green condition. One Singapore partner wanted to have preliminarily processed Gac fruit to make finished products. How can we do it all by ourself?
How do you view success?
Right from the start, we weren’t very ambitious. Everything comes naturally and we can do basic things to confidently go further. Owning Land is also thanks to savings, so there is no pressure. Born in the Central region, I always remember the scene where my parents were soaked in the sun and rain in the fields to raise their children to study. When I come home from school, I go to the mountains to cut firewood, and sell it to earn more. When I grew up and had some money, my father passed away. That sad feeling stayed with me for the rest of my life. Therefore, now associated with agriculture, I have my own feelings and like it very much. I think there are many opportunities, I will try my best to do whatever I can. To make money, you can earn more in the city. The original purpose was not for the economy, so we were determined to make something associated with our country’s agricultural products. That’s why I named our company as Chanh Viet. Those values must carry the Vietnamese brand. I feel sorry when seeing that Thai people buy fruits from Vietnam at a very cheap price, preliminary processing them for exporting to Malaysia and Singapore at a high price, and those countries process them and re-export them to Vietnam with much higher price. When mentioning fruits, people think that Thai products are better, I do not agree with this point of view. I strongly state Thai limes currently cannot compete with our company’s limes.
Agricultural Product Research Center of Chanh Viet Company is going to open, what do you expect?
The soon-to-be-completed office in Ho Chi Minh City is intended to be a convenient place for scientists to do intensive researches on development of agricultural products, and good farming methods to support farmers. Our company has been in a very good position today thanks to the help and support of many scientists and experts coming from universities. There are master students who conduct their research at our farm. When their research is completed, those topics are put into application in our company. After graduating, these students also work at our company. They need an experimental place to contribute to bringing Vietnam agricultural products further.
* Thank you for your interesting sharing!