Passion and daring ideas - the key to success

With ideas, passion, and the support of the Women's Union as well as industrial promotion policies in the province, many women have confidently started their own businesses to be successfully recognized. It is truly the matter of pride as some of them even created (One Commune One Product) OCOP for the province.

Le Nguyen Thao instructs workers to pick ripe peppercorns in the plantation

Quit the job and come back to be the owners

Used to be a Japanese interpreter with a good income, it accidentially came to Le Nguyen Thao in An Dien commune of Ben Cat town that she could not work for someone elses forever! And so the idea of starting a business inspired her to get rich on her land.

Taking us to the pepper plantation that is in the harvest season, Le Nguyen Thao said that the place was managed by her sisterhood. On the other side was a large-scale ornamental garden, rich in seedlings, the enthusiasm and fruits of the labor of three sisters – the retired teachers. Her pepper plantation is more than 1 hectare in An Dien commune of Ben Cat town, where she started to make pepper powder and dried pepper to supply to the market.

Nguyen Thao revealed her desire to have a business, so she boldly started a business with the pepper cultivation. Her family's pepper garden of more than 5,000 pillars is developing very well. According to her, the pepper plant has the advantage of less pests and diseases with no need to administer chemical fertilizers, but fast production and year-round harvest are maintained. Currently, her family's pepper has a stable output with the purchase price of dried pepper at VND 200,000 s kg, green pepper VND 50,000 a kg. The processed pepper is more expensive than normal ones, but customers still choose this type of pepper because the product is clean while the aroma is very stimulating to the taste.

Her family's pepper facility has been appraised by the provincial Center for Investment Promotion, Trade and Industrial Development, and supported with an amount of VND 140 million. Based on the support, her family invested in buying a pepper dryer to add value to the product. Currently, after deducting investment costs, the profit of the pepper garden brings her family about VND 30 million per month. In November 2022, the facility's pepper products were certified with 3-star OCOP. Since reaching OCOP standards, products are easier to access and expand the consumption market.

Not only did she successfully start a business of her passionate doing, Le Nguyen Thao also created jobs for 4-10 workers depending on the job requirements. Pepper picking is currently about VND 200,000 a day and is a seasonal job for those who need a part-time job. "Bringing clean products, grown by organic methods to the market, I am very happy because I am always interested in the development of green and clean agriculture," said Nguyen Thao.

Also boldly starting a business, now Le Thi Thanh Phuong, a member of the Women's Union of Chanh Phu Hoa ward in Ben Cat town, has succeeded with the mushroom cultivation model. Phuong said that after the COVID-19 epidemic, she actively sought to buy products to support her health. Realizing that cordyceps products have many uses, but there are too many types and prices on the market, she came up with the idea of ​​cultivating cordyceps for both home use and business sales.

As an environmental engineer while her husband was a food chemical engineer, the duo were convenient on learning about planting methods, characteristics, varieties, and where to provide such varieties. They also took the time to visit cordyceps workshops in the southern provinces to choose a place to transfer technology and reputable varieties. Initially, Phuong decided to make a small model by taking a small number of pre-implanted embryos (about 200 boxes of embryos a time) for testing. She said cultivating cordyceps is a long process because the time to harvest cordyceps is from 60 up to 75 days, requiring hard work, patience and professional knowledge. Therefore, the couple must always monitor the development of the fungus from embryo implantation to their adulthood.

At first, due to lack of experience, the success rate of mushroom batches was not high. Therefore, Phuong registered to participate in the technology transfer course from seed isolation to levels 1 and 2, liquid seed, embryo making, farming and spent a house with an area of 120m2 for cultivation. From practical farming experience and well-equipped techniques, they gradually learned and the results became more and more positive.

The push from the organization

Up to now, 72 female-owned cooperative groups have been established in Ben Cat town alone with 469 members; 36 groups associated with 404 members; 10 cooperatives with 83 members, of which 41 members are female. The total charter capital of the cooperatives is more than VND 7.1 billion - 7 times more than the target registered with the Central Women's Union at the beginning of the term. 5 possible start-up and business models were supported for implementation and replication at the district level such as cultivation of lotus and melons in a closed houses, cultivation of abalone mushrooms, cuinary services for parties, and tailoring.

Nguyen Thi Anh Diep, Vice Chairwoman of the Women's Union of Ben Cat town, said that they have made many innovations in supporting women to start businesses with focuses on solution groups such as propagating and mobilizing members and women to participate in economic restructuring, innovating and developing effective forms of production and business organization, focus on supporting women to access capital sources, science and technology transfer programs for application in production and business operations.

According to Truong Thanh Nga, Chairwoman of the provincial Women's Union, women's unions in the province have supported and helped 404 members and women with ideas to start a business start successful businesses by various forms such as capital support, science and technology, vocational training consultancy, etc. with a total support amount of more than VND 17 billion over the past time. The provincial Women's Union also cooperated with the provincial Women's Entrepreneurs Association and Vietcombank to give a package of livelihood support and business start-up support to women members with a total amount of VND 400 million.

According to Truong Thanh Nga, the project of "Supporting women to start a business in 2017-2025" has continued to be communicated to households from the beginning of the year. At the same time, the association continued to encourage members and women to participate in the 2023 women's entrepreneurship contest and promote indigenous resources organized by the Central Committee of the Association. Thereby, the provincial Association has selected 6 exams to send to the Central Association. As a result, all 6 ideas passed the preliminary round to participate in the training round of the regional competition to be held in Can Tho.

Reported by Quynh Nhu – Translated by Vi Bao