Cacao Bungo 3 in 1: Dong Nai's first and only 5-star OCOP product
TĐKT - After fulfilling the role of a soldier and a military doctor participating in two resistance wars and participating in the Southwest border battlefield, Mr. Dang Tuong Kham (Chairman of the Board of Members of Cocoa Company Limited Trong Duc, Phu Hoa commune, Dinh Quan district, Dong Nai province) started farming. Having established a relationship with the igneous mountain land of Dinh Quan district - Dong Nai since 2005, during the research process, realizing that cocoa trees were suitable and had many advantages for development, he boldly invested 80 billion VND. into this field.
Mr. Dang Tuong Kham, Chairman of the Board of Members of Trong Duc Cocoa Company Limited (left) received the Head of the delegation of Thai Ministry of Agriculture officials to learn cocoa growing experience
The cocoa tree is a very valuable tree. When the cocoa tree was discovered, people named it Theobroma, meaning "God-given product". Cocoa trees are used to make food, medicine, and cosmetics. In particular, cocoa trees are grown intercropped under cashew trees, which are the main industrial crops in Dong Nai land.
Currently, Dong Nai province has 44,000 hectares of cashew trees. Cashew nuts are a major source of export for Dong Nai province, but cashew growers are still poor on their own land, because 1 hectare of cashew only earns less than 30 million VND/year. With the spirit of daring to think and daring to do, Mr. Dang Tuong Kham and Trong Duc Cocoa Company Limited have helped farmers escape poverty by daring to invest more than 80 billion VND to intercrop cocoa trees in cashew and cashew gardens. Build a factory to process cocoa into valuable products.
To have money to invest, he boldly mortgaged his house. During the past 15 years, he has not left cocoa farmers for a single day, always accompanying farmers, always thinking of every way to help farmers increase their income from their gardens. He himself once wrote off more than 3 billion VND in debt for cocoa farmers in Dinh Quan district, Tan Phu... when world cocoa prices dropped, cocoa growers harvested fruit that was not enough to cover costs. plant. At that time, no business dared to risk investing large amounts of money in the cocoa growing and cocoa processing industry in Vietnam.
Implementing the motto "Take the people as the root, the Party leads, government organizations and businesses are the driving force, banks accompany and support", he ran Trong Duc Cocoa Company boldly creating a chain of links from farmers to cooperative groups, cooperatives to companies, with no traders in between, creating a sustainable development position for cocoa trees in Dong Nai province and neighboring provinces such as Lam Dong, Binh Thuan, Ba Ria - Vung Tau, not dependent on the prices of world cocoa corporations. Thereby, helping the company create sustainable raw material areas, organize production and consumption of cocoa products on a large scale, create high output, uniform quality, and improve capacity. compete; Helps businesses carry out production plans well and avoid going bankrupt due to lack of raw materials.
With determination and goals, a feasible business strategy, on April 13, 2015, with the trust of the provincial leaders, Trong Duc Cocoa Company received Decision 865/QD-UBND of the People's Committee of Dong Nai province on "Approval of the Project of large cooperative fields, linking production with cocoa consumption in Thong Nhat, Dinh Quan and Tan Phu districts, Dong Nai province".
Intercropping cocoa trees in cashew gardens helps increase production value and optimally use the cashew growing area. The income of cashew farmers intercropped with cocoa has increased to more than 100 million VND/ha. Farmers no longer worry about poor harvest prices and are not afraid of poverty on their land. He has contributed to the sustainable development of Dong Nai province's agricultural sector, developing Vietnam's cocoa industry to become stronger, more sustainable and worthy of the world.
He is the person who researched cocoa seedlings that meet TCVN standards, so farmers who buy seedlings from Trong Duc Cocoa Company will be directly guided and trained by the company on effective techniques for planting and caring for cocoa trees. fruit, support participation in cocoa production according to international quality standards to achieve the highest productivity, best quality and maximum income.
Signing product consumption contracts is something that farmers really need but not many businesses can do it. Trong Duc company is the leading and pioneering enterprise in the entire Dong Nai province. He directed Trong Duc Company to decide to share profits with farmers, enrich themselves on his homeland and signed a contract to sell cocoa to farmers at a price of 6,200 VND/kg of fruit. fresh (in other localities such as Dak Lak and the Mekong Delta provinces, the selling price is from 4,500 VND to 5,500 VND). From 2016 until now, it is estimated that each year, the amount of money the company has to pay in cocoa subsidies to farmers is up to tens of billions of dong.
After stabilizing the production material area, Trong Duc company applied advanced technology and techniques and boldly invested more than 50 billion VND to build a factory, import modern machinery and equipment to make products. Typical products such as cocoa powder, chocolate, cocoa wine..., there are more than 30 products of all kinds. Currently, the company's products are consumed in many provinces in the country such as Dong Nai, Lam Dong, Kien Giang, Ben Tre, Binh Phuoc, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City... In addition, the company's products It is also known and trusted by some countries around the world such as Russia, Korea, Japan, China...
Not only looking for external markets, Trong Duc company also aims to develop a new, effective direction, "experiential tourism about cocoa". Visitors will be able to directly participate in growing and caring for cocoa, processing products, and enjoying cocoa products. In addition, he also advocates collaborating with Dong Nai University of Technology to research new products to increase the value of cocoa trees; access and support real activities
Phuong Minh