Business startup from ambition

In 2003, on a visit to a relative in Dong Nai province and witnessing his model of black fungus ear mushroom growing, Bui Van Minh started planting black fungus ear mushroom. With the capital of VND40mil, he invested in building a farmstead on an area of 400sqm. However, owing to shortage of experience, he failed and lost VND200mil after 2 years of business startup.

After that, he shifted to plant Pleurotus mushroom but unfortunately he lost VND100mil again, due to shortage of experience.

While worrying about failures of mushroom growing, Minh’s farmstead was chosen as a pilot model of Pleurotus mushroom growing by Tan Uyen district economic division. Thanks to instructions of technique, he started expanding his area up to 600sqm.

Making wealth on mushroom

  Minh introduces his red lingzhi mushroom.

Thanks to accumulation of experiences and constant inspection on quality and technique from the Research Institute for Bio-technology, his Pleurotus mushroom model has brought high results.

In addition, Minh has gained success on his new pilot model of growing red lingzhi mushroom. At present, he has reaped nearly 100kg of Pleurotus mushroom per day, pricing about VND20,000 per kg. He reaps a profit of VND200-300mil per year.

Assessing efficiency of this model, Pham Minh Tuan, vice chairman of Uyen Hung township Farmers’ Society, said “Minh’s mushroom growing model has given the highest efficiency in the locality. There are many people from everywhere paying learning visits to his model. Also thanks to this model, Minh has been chosen as one of good farmers in production and business in 2012”.

Talking about plan of offering mushroom for the upcoming Tet market, Minh added “In the recent years, customers have shifted to use clean, safe, nutritious and high valued products. Mushroom is a kind of food satisfying the mentioned requirements. To prepare mushroom for Tet market, I have implemented a model of growing paddy straw mushroom in glass house. The new model will offer clean products without chemical substance. On average, my mushroom farmstead can offer about 400-500 kg of clean paddy straw mushroom per day”.

Regarding the future plans, Minh reveals that he will research to plant green lingzhi mushroom in 2013.

Mushroom growing is one of the latest ways in rural economic development, especially for areas in restriction of land fund. According to assessment of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, mushroom is one of 6 national products in the 2011-2020 period because mushroom is loved by local and outbound markets and is in great demand. As such, this kind of product’s output has many advantages. Therefore, local authorities should expand the model to improve income for farmers.

Reported by P.An – Translated by A.C