Agricultures, Foods, News & Event

Ben Tre woman elevates agricultural products, exports durian “abroad”

Posted on by nguyennpt

Kinhtedothi – Born in a land specializing in growing durian, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thinh, Director of Tan Phu Agricultural Cooperative, Ben Tre has “made her name” with this fruit with her own brand “Ms. Thinh’s durian”.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Thinh (born in 1969, residing in Tan Phu commune, Chau Thanh district, Ben Tre), Director of Tan Phu Agricultural Cooperative, is famous for being a determined, creative farmer and inspiring local women. From a farmer with an unstable life, she rose up to become rich and helped many people rise up and become rich.

Determined to change, rise up

Recalling the difficult times, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thinh said that before 2017, durian growers in this area did not understand the techniques and just left the trees to the land and the weather. People only planted durian and waited for the right time, if God gave them, they would succeed, if God did not give them, they would fail. Because of farming according to the old way of thinking, life was very precarious, and it was inevitable that there would be years when God gave them a good harvest but traders forced down the price.

During the historic drought and salinity, many durian orchards in the area suffered heavy damage. Faced with the challenge of having to change, Ms. Thinh was determined to learn cultivation techniques to preserve the orchard. From her idea, she mobilized the women in the hamlet to establish a women’s group “Love to grow trees”, and then established the Ham Luong hamlet durian cooperative. The cooperative, through the commune government, invited agricultural engineers to train in techniques for planting and caring for durian trees according to VietGAP standards.

Ms. Thinh shared that because she only studied until grade 8 and then got married, and had not touched books for many years, when she started learning durian growing techniques, she encountered many difficulties. But after months of trying, Ms. Thinh mastered the techniques to take care of the tree to be the healthiest, most evenly and most beautiful.

In 2018, Ms. Thinh registered her durian for trademark registration. Since then, “Ms. Thinh’s durian” has been recognized by Ben Tre province as a typical local product. Thanks to the application of techniques, Ms. Thinh’s family’s 3,200m2 garden generates a profit of over 300 million VND every year.

“Regarding the cooperative, initially there were only 11 members, but then it grew 5 times more, with both male and female members. The group also opened a durian care consulting service for gardeners in the area, with customers all year round,” said Ms. Thinh.

Currently, Ms. Thinh’s cooperative is growing over 40 hectares of durian, harvesting about 1,200 tons of fruit each year. Thanks to scientific growing methods and stable output, the members are all well-off.

Ms. Cao Thi Chien, a former teacher and member of the durian growing cooperative, shared: “When they first started learning new techniques, most women were hesitant. The reasons they gave were that they were old, had little education so they didn’t understand, and were poor so they had to work and didn’t have time. But then thanks to Ms. Thinh’s inspiration and example, everyone saw the benefits and gradually became more active.”

Nowadays, durian from Ham Luong, Tan Phu, Chau Thanh has been granted a growing area code and is officially exported to China. Ms. Thinh’s durian has the opportunity to expand its business further and is increasingly winning over more customers.

Upgrading and exporting durian

Over time, the Ham Luong durian cooperative has been operating stably, creating cohesion among durian growers in the group. Through the mobilization of Tan Phu commune, on December 26, 2020, Tan Phu Agricultural Cooperative was established, the core of which is still the members of the Ham Luong durian cooperative along with new members who are durian farmers in Tan Phu commune.

When it was first established, the cooperative had 53 members, now it has increased to a total of nearly 200 members. The cooperative has built 6 durian growing area codes, applying VietGAP standard production on an area of ​​200 hectares…

With quality durian, Ms. Thinh and everyone else thought about finding an outlet. She did not hesitate to bring durian to many businesses in Ho Chi Minh City or any opportunity.

“My durian always sells for 20% higher than the market price. If we have quality, a brand, and are certified, customers will always trust us, and customers will not be afraid of high prices. The durian garden has been granted a growing area code for official export to China,” Ms. Thinh said.

The “strategy” for selling durian has not stopped there, Ms. Thinh also opened a tourism service for customers to experience picking durian in the garden. She has used tourists as an effective sales channel.

In addition to supplying fresh durian to serve the domestic and export markets, Ms. Thinh also thought of processing frozen durian, fried durian, durian spring rolls, durian curry, mixed durian stir-fry… to provide diverse products to the market, contributing to increasing the value of durian.

Source: https://kinhtedothi.vn/nguoi-phu-nu-ben-tre-nang-tam-nong-san-dua-sau-rieng-xuat-ngoai.html