Cha, con và giấc mơ ca cao

Mr. Dang Tuong Khanh introduced Bungo cocoa products to visitors.

For a product line born less than three months ago, this is a great encouragement for Mr. Dang Tuong Khanh - the young director of Trong Duc Company, as well as for his father Mr. Dang Tuong Kham - who has researched and created more than a dozen lines of cocoa products for this company.

From the dream of the father

In 2005, at the age of "cross-brethren", Mr. Kham entered the cocoa field. The old doctor thought, "Seeing what health can do, do it", and he did it decisively.

In 2006, Trong Duc Cocoa Co., Ltd. was established. With the policy of proactive material areas for processing products, from a few hectares of family cocoa, Mr. Kham has linked with farmers in Dong Nai, Lam Dong and Binh Thuan provinces to expand the material area to 1,000. hectare in 2010. Mr. Kham has spent most of the accumulated money to buy seedlings, then resell them to farmers for VND 6,000 / tree. Farmers only have to pay in half, the other half will pay after harvest. However, because the area of ​​cocoa cultivation increased too fast, the technical staff was not enough to provide advice to farmers, making the tree grow unexpectedly, plus the rise of other industrial crops such as cashew and pepper. , people cut down cocoa trees.

At the end of 2012, the area of ​​raw material areas decreased by more than 700 hectares. In 2015, Trong Duc decided to completely erase the debt of selling seedlings to farmers.

Now, looking back on this incident, Mr. Kham considered it a "stumbling block" that business people have to go through. Then he spoke softly about his dream - the dream of a cocoa conglomerate in the Southeast, where farmers would own shares and be the real owners of the corporation.

He said: "When I asked many farmers that if every year, every hectare of cocoa earns VND 80 million, would you buy a share of the company, the answer is yes!", And he said the price The company 's current subsidy ensures farmers reach 80-100 million VND / hectare profit. "

In order to ensure such a good subsidy price, Trong Duc has directed the processing of value-added cocoa products, not the export of cocoa beans. "Agriculture must be associated with processing if it wants to master," Kham said. He said that every 10 tons of fresh cocoa will give 1 ton of dry beans. If you export raw, you can get 72 million dong, and that's all value earned. But if you bring pressed cocoa, you will get 500 kg (kilogram) of cocoa juice. One sign can make 20 bottles of wine (750 milliliters per liter) for 160,000 VND / bottle, respectively, it will earn 1.6 billion VND, the value is not small. Not to mention the cocoa shell can also be processed into organic fertilizer, substrate or handicraft material.

Boys succeed

This year, Mr. Kham entered the age of 84, the company's business management was undertaken by his son, Dang Tuong Khanh, from 2010 at the time Trong Duc had many difficulties. Feeling the enthusiasm of his father, Khanh from a person who knows nothing about cocoa, gradually understands each plant and disease. More and more, he understands why people call cocoa Theobroma, which in Greek means "food of the gods". That's because from cocoa, people can make countless things, from cacao to wine, cocoa powder, chocolate ...

Understood, he began to love cocoa. From the second half of 2014, Mr. Khanh had 14 consecutive months of hard work with Japanese people. As a result, Kenkyusho Company - a joint venture between Trong Duc and a Japanese enterprise, was established in August 2015 in Singapore, in which Trong Duc specializes in raw materials and production, Japanese people will take care of the market. “I look forward to this cooperation, because when the output is stable, the company can buy farmers' cocoa at a better price. In addition, it is also a door for the world to know about Vietnamese cocoa as a chocolate producer, not merely a crude cocoa exporter, ”he said.

By 3-2016 here, the first chocolate bars of Kenkyusho will be put on the market. And to share this joy with farmers, Trong Duc decided to pilot the product consumption throughout the year for some farmers in Dong Nai for VND 6,000 / fresh cocoa signed - about 1,000 higher than the market price. contract / sign.

In this agreement, the company paid VND5,500 to farmers, temporarily withheld VND500 for use in investment in machinery and equipment for processing products to increase cocoa value. With the commitment not to sell the product outside and cultivate the technique according to the company's instructions, after six months or a year, farmers will be refunded this amount. Anh Khanh explained: “This is like a farmer who does business with the company. When the company has invested capital, improves product quality, the purchasing price is also increased. At the same time, this commitment will help link farmers and businesses more closely ”.

This move is the first step for farmers to become shareholders of the company when Trong Duc is equitized in 2016. Equitization also seeks to find partners with the same vision, helping the company to have enough resources to go far.

The vision that Mr. Khanh mentioned is to build a transparent, sustainable cocoa group, by farmers, for farmers, where the interests of farmers are placed first, to realize the dream that His father had placed the first bricks.

The way forward...

The foundation already exists, but to build a strong brand, Trong Duc needs more.

In 2014, the company's revenue (mainly from crude exports) was VND 8 billion. This number has doubled in 2015 thanks to a variety of products and increased value with 11 categories of products meeting UTZ standards. However, currently only 10% of cocoa is kept for processing, 90% is still exported. High-value products still make up a low rate, making Khanh impatient, because he already knows the direction but has not been able to step quickly and step hard. When Ms. Nakamura asked if she wanted to buy 100 Bungo chocolate signs, the company could only supply half of them. This kept him from worrying and regreting: “Our line is not enough to meet production needs. The most important is the lack of capital ”. Trong Duc's forward challenge is the ability to meet large orders that require strict quality and delivery time.

In fact, after the achievements, Trong Duc has received more attention than the first time, including the attention of local authorities. In April 2015, Dong Nai People's Committee approved the project "a large field of cooperation and production linkage with consumption of cocoa in Thong Nhat, Dinh Quan and Tan Phu districts, Dong Nai province", in Trong Duc is the main partner of local cocoa cooperatives. A project with 830 hectares of cocoa intercropped with cashew, the total investment from many sources is expected to be more than 352 billion VND, which will be the capital support and the assurance of material areas for Trong Duc, simultaneously, creating revenue Stable import for farmers. However, almost a year has passed, this project is still ... lying on paper. Trong Duc Company still has to turn itself around to find a way to develop.

It can be seen that the seeds that have been cultivated for more than 10 years have sprouted green, but the process of growing the tree and becoming strong is a road still ahead ...