Awakening the potential of cocoa beans
Ms. Nhung studied tour guiding at Saigon Tourism College and has many years of experience in the service industry. However, it was her love for her homeland and the pain of seeing the cocoa trees that were once expected to be gradually cut down that led her to a completely new direction.
Ms. Nhung with cocoa products.
In 2018, Ms. Nhung and her husband established Cacao Mekong Company Limited with the goal of restoring and sustainably developing cocoa trees in Vinh Long . “This land has ideal soil conditions, cocoa beans have very good quality, but due to the lack of stable output, many farmers have cut down their gardens, and the trees are planted and then destroyed. That further urged us to do something to preserve this tree species and increase its value for farmers,” Ms. Nhung shared.
Since 2019, Cacao Mekong Co., Ltd. has started to build a production and consumption chain with farmers. The company purchases cocoa beans directly from the garden, helping people feel secure in investing in farming and creating a stable source of input materials for the company. Currently, Cacao Mekong Co., Ltd. has purchased cocoa for about 50 households in Vinh Long province. However, according to Ms. Nhung, the current output is still not enough to meet the needs of the increasingly expanding processing chain.
Bringing Vinh Long cocoa to the world
Not stopping at the purchasing stage, Ms. Nhung has invested in a factory area of more than 3,500m², installing a modern, closed production line. Each year, Cacao Mekong Company Limited processes about 30 tons of dry cocoa beans, supplying the market with more than 3 tons of finished products per month. Typical product lines under the Cacao Mekong brand include pure cocoa powder, cocoa butter, natural cocoa mass, roasted cocoa beans... The products are manufactured completely without using chemicals or preservatives, preserving the natural flavor and ensuring safety for consumers' health.
“We choose the fermentation process using wooden barrels and banana leaves for 6-8 days, then sun-drying, roasting, coarse grinding, shelling twice and then fine grinding. This method helps the product retain its natural color, high smoothness, no lumps and the rich flavor typical of Western cocoa,” said Ms. Nhung.
Up to now, Cacao Mekong brand has achieved many prestigious certifications such as ISO 9001:2015, ISO 22000:2018, good practice 5S according to Japanese standards; is a typical rural industrial product at the provincial and southern region levels and has achieved 3-star OCOP certification. The product is not only present in major domestic markets such as Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Mekong Delta provinces..., but also exported to China, Cambodia, Laos, Korea, Japan and many other potential markets.
According to Ms. Nhung, currently, high demand but low supply has caused the world cocoa price to increase sharply. Moreover, Vietnam has a clean source of cocoa materials, so it is very popular with international customers. "Not only businesses recognize the potential of this crop, but local authorities have also built a pilot planting model that has shown quite good results, so they also encourage farmers to expand the planting area," Ms. Nhung said.
The development journey of Cacao Mekong Co., Ltd. is a testament to the effort to bring innovative thinking to agriculture, where a local enterprise not only restores the value of native crops, but also elevates Vietnamese agricultural products in the international market. “Cocoa is not only a raw material, but also a culture, a livelihood, a story about the land and people of the West. I wish to contribute to preserving and developing this crop sustainably and spreading its true value to the community,” Ms. Nhung shared.
Article and photos: NGUYEN TRINH
Source: https://baocantho.com.vn/nguoi-phu-nu-nang-tam-gia-tri-trai-ca-cao-a191815.html
Comment (0)