Turning bananas into specialties

QTO - From the familiar bunches of bananas in the farmer's garden, Hoang Huy Thanh, a young man born in 1991 in Dong Hoi ward, has "magically" transformed them into a specialty dish with a local imprint. The product of honey banana covered with dried coconut of Hoang Minh Specialty Production and Trading Cooperative was born not only to solve the output for farmers but also to contribute to increasing the value of agricultural products, opening up a new direction - turning agricultural products into specialties associated with tourism and building brands.

Starting a business from concerns

Visiting Hoang Huy Thanh's production facility on Tran Binh Trong Street, Dong Hoi Ward, the first thing that impressed us was the neat, clean space, exuding the professionalism and neatness of a young person who puts all his heart into each product.

Trays of golden bananas covered with smooth white shredded coconut wait their turn to be put into the dryer. Next to them, four dryers operate continuously, exuding the sweet scent of bananas mixed with coconut. While opening the machine to check the batch of dried bananas, Huy Thanh said: "Actually, at first, I started my business with dried sweet potatoes. And from the experience with that familiar specialty of Quang Binh (old), I further realized the potential of processing agricultural products after harvest. So from March 2025, I started experimenting with the product of dried coconut-coated honey bananas."

Mr. Hoang Huy Thanh chose convection drying technology because of its economic efficiency and superior product quality, ensuring food hygiene and safety - Photo: D.V

Hoang Huy Thanh's idea came from very practical concerns. He realized that Quang Tri, with a rapidly increasing number of tourists, lacked special products that were attractive and of sufficient quality to retain tourists. Moreover, the processing of agricultural products after harvest was still limited, causing the value of agricultural products to not be fully exploited, and farmers faced the risk of crop failure and price drops.

Realizing this fact, he spent time researching drying technology and looking for a suitable local agricultural product. And then, he "fell in love" with the honey banana variety, a type of banana that can grow well on barren hills, is easy to grow, has low costs and can be harvested all year round. He imports bananas from households in the province, mainly from Tan Long banana market, ensuring a source of fresh and abundant raw materials.

But Huy Thanh understood that ordinary dried bananas alone were not enough of a breakthrough. To create a difference, he came up with the idea of ​​combining honey bananas with a layer of finely grated coconut, creating a honey banana product covered with dried coconut. After experimenting with many drying technologies, Mr. Thanh decided to choose convection drying technology because of its economic efficiency and superior product quality, ensuring food hygiene and safety.

The process is strictly standardized: Ripe bananas are peeled, washed, sliced, covered with finely grated coconut and dried for about 15 hours at 60-65°C. The finished product is soft, sweet banana slices combined with the fatty aroma of coconut. Not only delicious, the product is also packaged attractively, ensuring hygiene, meeting the increasing needs of tourists and consumers.

Thanks to the positive feedback from customers who tried the product, Mr. Thanh was confident in the path he chose. It was not only a business project, but also an inspirational story of a young person with the desire to increase the value of agricultural products, create products with local identity and solve stable output for farmers.

Step by step brand positioning

The quality and uniqueness of the dried coconut-coated banana product has been confirmed by the third prize at the 2025 Creative Startup Competition organized by the Provincial Youth Union. According to Mr. Phan Trung Thong, Director of TOPFA Vietnam Joint Stock Company, a member of the competition's jury: "This is a potential and highly creative project. The unique product meets the market demand, especially the tourism market. Moreover, taking advantage of local raw materials and creating added value is also a big plus for this project."

The market has proven that this assessment is completely correct. After a short time of launching, the product has quickly won the hearts of consumers. On average, each month, Mr. Thanh's facility sells about 1 ton of finished bananas, equivalent to about 3 tons of fresh bananas, with a steady revenue of 120 million VND, an impressive figure for a "young" startup project.

Cooperative staff packing products - Photo: D.V

With the product of dried coconut-coated honey banana, Mr. Thanh identified two potential customer groups: tourists and consumers who love healthy snacks. To reach the group of tourists, he put the product on the shelves of some large specialty supermarkets in Dong Hoi, such as: 868 Specialty Supermarket, Central Specialty Supermarket...

This strategy has brought initial success when the product was well received and highly appreciated by customers for both quality and packaging. In addition, he also took full advantage of the power of online sales channels. From building a website, fanpage, setting up shops on e-commerce platforms to building a Tiktok channel, Mr. Thanh introduced the product widely. Thanks to attractive content about the clean production process and health benefits of the product, the dried coconut-coated honey banana quickly reached nearly 500 sales and many 5-star reviews on Tiktok after only a few months of being on the market.

Not only aiming for profit, Mr. Thanh also builds a long-term vision for his products. He has registered a trademark with the name "Hoang Minh Dried Coconut-Coated Honey Banana" and is in the process of building a profile for the product to be certified as OCOP. This not only helps to enhance the value and reputation of the brand but also affirms the quality of the product, laying a solid foundation for sustainable development.

"Although facing many challenges in terms of investment capital to expand production, with the active search for capital sources and accumulation of profits, I believe that the goal of increasing capacity to 500kg of products per day in the future is completely feasible, thereby contributing to solving employment and creating income for more people," Mr. Thanh expressed.

Peace of Mind

 

 

Source: https://baoquangtri.vn/kinh-te/202510/bien-chuoi-que-thanh-dac-san-06c53af/