Originally a farmer, Nguyen Van Thiem boldly invested in cashew processing technology. He also planted Bat Do bamboo seeds on barren land, bringing high economic efficiency.
Cashew processing, double profit
In the early days of the cashew crop, back to the border commune of Ia Chia (Ia Grai district, Gia Lai), met Mr. Nguyen Van Thiem (45 years old), a farmer known as “Village Director” is busy with work. .
Mr. Thiem has boldly built a company in a poor village to deeply process the agricultural products of his family and relatives in the commune, in order to improve the value of agricultural products.
Mr. Thiem shared: “In this area, the raw materials are good, but traders pressured the price. That’s why I boldly made a chain, deep processing technology for cashew nuts and registered a trademark to bring it to customers. delicious, organic products. From there, farmers in the village have a higher income.”
Mr. Thiem confided that because life in the countryside was difficult, he and his family moved to the border area of Ia Chia to establish a business. At first, he and his wife worked as rubber workers, and their great-grandchildren bought a small garden.
Seeing that the toxic rubber worker job had to stay up late, Mr. Thiem decided to take a break to develop the economy on the rocky land the couple had accumulated.
After many years of hard work on the rocky land, Mr. Thiem and his wife own nearly ten hectares of land. Because of the barren soil, Mr. Thiem chose cashew as the main crop to plant with about 6 hectares of cultivation. Every year, he harvests 10-12 tons of cashews.
Initially, the harvested cashews were roasted by Thiem and his wife in batches. Due to manual roasting, it is difficult to control the temperature, which is easy to burn. In addition, there is no grain separator, so the product is also broken and crumbled a lot.
After many failures, Mr. Thiem has produced satisfactory batches of roasted cashews. He also boldly established a company to bring his village’s cashew brand to all provinces.
After nearly 3 years of investment and development, cashew nuts from the border commune of Ia Chia have reached the market in many big cities such as Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang and the central provinces.
Mr. Thiem shared: “My advantage is living in the raw material area, which many large businesses are in dire need of. To have good products, I have cooperated with relatives, organized care according to the method. organic. I have committed to always buy higher than the market price.”
According to Mr. Thiem, each hectare of cashew, sold raw, earns about 60 million VND/year. But when roasting, drying up, the profit will double. On average, each year he sells to the market about 3 tons of deep-processed cashews and 7 tons of dry products, earning a profit of about 700 million VND.
Nurturing Bat Do bamboo on barren land
Taking advantage of some uncultivated land, Mr. Thiem also boldly planted Bat Do bamboo for bamboo shoots. Realizing that the Bat Do bamboo growing model is effective, many people in the border commune of Ia Chia also ask for seeds to plant in their home garden.
Thiem recalled, in 2018, he returned to his hometown of Phu Tho and realized that the Bat Do bamboo growing model brought high economic efficiency. This bamboo variety has a high yield of bamboo shoots and can be sold for making handicrafts and selling seeds. Therefore, he bought the seeds and planted them on the rocky soil of Ia Chia commune.
After more than a year, Bat Do bamboo began to produce the first shoots. Realizing that bamboo shoots have a crunchy, naturally sweet taste and good consumption potential, Mr. Thien continues to expand the area to build a raw material area. He also registered trademarks and packaging to bring to the market many quality products.
Currently, he has planted about 1,000 bamboo roots, of which 700 are being harvested. Last year, Mr. Thiem collected tons of bamboo shoots for domestic and foreign markets. After deducting expenses, Mr. Thiem earns a profit of more than 250 million VND/year.
Mr. Thiem confided: “Bat Do bamboo shoots are big, yield many times higher than normal bamboo shoots. Each bamboo shoot weighs 3-8kg, thin skin, white flesh, thick, small core, ratio meat is over 85%”.
Currently, fresh bamboo shoots are priced at 10-15 thousand VND/kg, dried bamboo shoots cost 220-250 thousand VND/kg. Last year, he also sold a lot of seeds to people in the village to replicate the model.
Mr. Phan Dinh Tham – Head of Agriculture and Rural Development Department of Ia Grai district said: “The district owns many large raw material areas such as coffee, pepper, cashew, fruit trees. To increase the value of products, many Farmers boldly build cooperatives and companies to deeply process local agricultural products.. Nguyen Thiem’s household is also a typical case, with the model of deep processing cashew nut, growing Bat Do bamboo shoots. Seeing the high value, many relatives have linked and replicated the model”.
Photo: Internet (Vinlove.net)