General Director of Trong Duc Cocoa Company Dang Tuong Khanh: I want to accomplish with my father's enthusiasm

It all started from the fact that the old father, who was an elite medical doctor and physician - suddenly wanted to "turn" to agriculture, and then spent almost all the fortune accumulated. life into a new plant: cocoa.

Director of Trong Duc Cocoa Company Dang Tuong Khanh

Established the company in 2005, the material area developed strongly, but he expected more than selling raw materials. He calculated that every 10 tons of fresh cocoa would 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 500kg of cocoa juice. 1kg can make 20 bottles of wine (750ml type) for 160,000 VND / bottle, respectively, will earn 1.6 billion VND.

From the father's idea of ​​an Eastern cocoa conglomerate, bringing a fundamental change to the participating farmers is gradually forming when Trong Duc Cocoa Company (Dinh Quan District) has Japanese and Korean customers. cooperating in making high quality chocolate bars for export, while selling raw materials, selling cocoa powder with a more prestigious brand name. At the age of 85, although still standing side by side with the cocoa project, for 7 years now, his entire management and development work on cocoa has been handed over to his youngest son, Dang Tuong Khanh, born in the year. 1980.

* Sale of land, sale of cocoa investors

When he received "burden" from his father in a field where he had no experience, did he feel pressured?

- To be honest, I did not like agriculture initially because it contained too much risk. In 2006, I was 26 years old and was in a freelance business in Ho Chi Minh City, I had absolutely no intention of farming. But my father, when he was old, wanted to do something for agriculture and farmers. This is not because the profits of my family were very well off. My father was a researcher, inventing a cough medicine, a medicine to treat Euca and my family quite well from that product. But suddenly my father wanted to encroach on agriculture at nearly 70 years of cocoa because he had time to study this plant in the 80s of the last century.

He sold land in Ho Chi Minh City, gathered capital to Tan Phu area to buy cocoa land. From the first 5,000 trees on a 6-hectare plot of land, he developed into a thousand hectare material area for thousands of farmers in neighboring districts of Lam Dong and Dong Nai. But we failed because the material area developed so fast, up to thousands of hectares in 2009. The technical staff was not enough to provide advice to farmers, making the tree grow unexpectedly, plus the throne 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, and then we cleared the debt for farmers.

In 2010, after an incident in the family, only my father was fighting. I went to Tan Phu to help my father even though my father did not force him. My father told me that it is difficult to see the effect in agriculture, so I have to invest very long. I got close to my father, learned little by little from my father, then I became interested and attracted to what my father was pursuing.

  What did you do during that difficult time?

- At that time, after 4 years, in addition to developing material areas, my father had to study some initial products from cocoa, such as cocoa powder, chocolate, cocoa liquor ... but almost Not sold yet. Therefore, I have to think of ways to sell. On the one hand, I strengthened the organization of the material area, which was reduced by 70% compared to before. We re-signed contracts with farmers, technical instructions, receive product coverage ... with the criteria that my father set out to ensure the rights of farmers, we could lose, but not let farmers hole. On the other hand, I seek to sell, sell from cocoa beans to cocoa products. I have to develop the processing section to reduce the amount of raw goods because selling raw grain will face many risks. My goal is to reduce the sale of raw cocoa beans, boost processing.

  And when did you find yourself beginning to love cocoa?

- The more I do, the more passionate I feel. According to many international customers, the quality of cocoa beans in Vietnam is in the top group of the world. My father's idea is to form a cocoa conglomerate in the Southeast and farmers will own a part of that plant. Previously, I thought it was not practical, but when I received the job, I found it possible. We have constraints for farmers to keep their credibility, interest, and quality control so that the whole UTZ certified material area (certified to ensure sustainable production) ... and gradually push farm responsibilities People go up high, tied to the factory with both financial benefits and job responsibilities. I also try to learn and apply more modern management processes, saving more personnel. It is all about realizing my father's goals and dreams, and also my dream.

* I'm passionate and hopeful

  How will the idea of ​​an eastern cocoa conglomerate grow in your mind?

- During overseas trips to learn about cocoa and cocoa processing, I always wonder why overseas farmers always sell products to the factory? And I see that, it's because of the very transparent way, the factory buys at a published price, clear classification, payment, market matching ... I tell my father, father's idea The Eastern Cocoa Group may be formed in the next 5 years. I said that we have 200 farmers participating in the material area. When purchasing products, we retain 500 VND / kg as an investment in processing and we pay interest to people. When more confident, they can leave VND 1,000 or VND 1,500 / kg. We have just paid 500 million VND to farmers from the 500 VND hold, they eat with us for a meal, and they buy the products of Trong Duc Cocoa Company over 400 million VND only that day. My father was very happy and I felt more hopeful.

  What are the conclusions of working with Japanese people in co-processing chocolate for sale in Japan?

- I worked 3 years with them. First, they are slow, persistent and careful so they cannot be impatient. The biggest thing is that they are serious from the beginning and Vietnamese people often lack seriousness at this point. We are impatient and want immediate results, but are serious.

They are careful from the habit of greeting to small activities in life. But the most important thing is during work: strict, disciplined. There is no work going out of smoking cigarettes or working while discussing. Japanese customers come to our factory to guide and control the process, training the working style ... And their requirements for the product are very difficult, very high. They only use our cocoa beans, milk must be Hokkaido milk to bring, taste and sugar as well. Honestly, we have not earned much money from Japanese customers. But what we learned is a lot, not to mention through them, we have many other customers. Because many countries customers just need to see us working with Japanese guests, they trust a lot.

  How far do you see yourself going in the process of making your father and son's dream come true?

- Honestly, at this time, we have just started making profits, even though we have invested more than ten years with millions of dollars of capital. Even the land near 2 acres in Ho Chi Minh City was sold by my father for investment, but my family understood and no one was bothered at all. We are having a separate orientation, on the one hand processing for big manufacturers, supplying raw materials, exporting materials ... Particularly for candy and flour product lines ..., we still sell steadily at domestic market. The most important thing is to ensure the benefits for the farmers who have been with us for the past ten years.

I believe my father's path and the long-term orientation for the company is right. Moreover, the company has the attention of the province, local authorities, the company is implementing a large field project according to the province's decision on cocoa development. I believe that by 2020, Dong Nai will have a cocoa material area of ​​over 1,000 hectares and the company will grow stronger than it is now, reaching out to the world.

  Thank you!