Stories from Van der Maas Farm

Linh Dang (right cover) and Vietnamese goods distribution partners in Europe

Not as romantic as the fairy tale where a princess falls into a farm and immediately becomes a girl who knows how to milk cows, MSc. Linh Dang recalls: I met my husband when I went to the Netherlands to study business administration and then I was instilled with the love of farming from him. Whenever I mentioned raising cows, his eyes lit up. He said that farming depends on nature, and I cannot be discouraged by a rain or storm. So I started working as a cleaner and porter at the cow farm, learning every little thing, meeting each customer to gain experience. Around me, there are people who have invested millions of EUR in the farm and still work like a real farmer because they love the job. Therefore, when I started my business again, I found packing, loading, and delivering goods to be completely normal. It gave me the opportunity to interact with customers and know how to estimate costs and time for each specific job.

Before that, Linh Dang worked as a financial supervisor for a small company in the Netherlands. After 7 years, she felt that the job was losing its appeal, so she stopped, wanting to spend time building Vietnam Corner. But her husband often strictly reminded her of the hardships of farming, because he himself had studied agricultural economics before deciding to return to the farm. But what her husband said is one thing, Linh herself is still moved when recalling the memory of her father-in-law, a Dutch farmer who left a special inheritance gift for his daughter-in-law. She said: My father-in-law's family already had a fruit farm, but because he loved cows, he and his wife started over with a cow. There is an image of him that keeps coming back in my mind. It is an old man over 70 years old who lost a leg, getting up at 5am to go to the farm. He only brought a sandwich for lunch so that he could drive a tractor to harvest grass. He came back late at night, his face sparkling with the joy of an old farmer but still sowing youth in his field. As for my mother-in-law, no matter how hard her farming work is, she still keeps the habit of reading books and watching the morning news. It is these images and feelings that help me feel that I belong here.

Linh Dang and the journey of distributing Vietnamese goods in Europe. Photo: NVCC

That attachment is not one-sided. Linh's husband knows that his wife still cherishes the dream of opening a supermarket or an online Asian sales system, so even when Linh invested her capital in a cow farm with her husband, he still encouraged her to start her own dream. Nearly a year ago, she and her friend opened an Asian food distribution company, including many Vietnamese products. To date, Vietnam Corner distributes about 600 official and unofficial products. Many customers from the Netherlands, Finland, Norway... have searched for Vietnam Corner online to buy Vietnamese chili sauce and seafood dipping salt.

Linh hopes that in the next 3 years, she will build a strong enough retail channel to respond quickly and in larger quantities, serving the individual tastes of customers better. In addition to distributing Mova products through the official channel to ensure European quality, Linh and her husband are planning to invest in a new warehouse system including cold storage, frozen storage and frozen transportation to ensure food safety procedures.

This investment also needs to be persistent and sustainable, just like the way Linh and her husband are investing in the health of each cow. “The Netherlands has very strict agricultural laws, requiring annual reports on the rate of sick cows, milk rate, etc. My farm has 145 milking cows, 150 growing calves and beef cattle. We have 21 hectares, and have to rent an additional 40 hectares to ensure enough food for the cows. Sustainable development of a cow farm in the Netherlands also includes giving the cows a comfortable life like being able to go outside in the spring and summer, investing in using environmentally friendly energy such as solar energy, wind energy, and cooperating with natural land management units to release the cows on this land,” Linh confided.

KIEU HUONG

Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/chuyen-o-nong-trai-van-der-maas-dang-post803561.html