30-year Journey of Uplifting Agricultural Products

During the 30-year development journey, Phong Thuy Agricultural Product Trade Manufacturing Company has always pioneered to apply advanced technology to agricultural production. Thereby, the company helps create a ripple effect in the community and encourages businesses, farmers and the whole society to move towards a green and sustainable agriculture.

Lam Dong has advantageous natural conditions, soil and climate for agricultural development, especially crops and livestock with high economic value. Lam Dong is considered the “capital” of high-tech agriculture with thousands of businesses, farms and cooperatives applying state-of-the-art technology to production. In particular, Phong Thuy Agricultural Product Trade Manufacturing Company quickly included itself to the list of 11 high-tech agricultural companies in Lam Dong province that supply world-class organic agricultural products.

Director Nguyen Hong Phong said, “Established in 1990 as a business household with a farming area of 0.4 ha in the K'Nai new economic region, Phu Hoi commune. Over the past 30 years, the company’s employees, from generation to generation, have experienced a lot of ups and downs in business. Due to small production scale, lack connectivity for formation of a closed chain from production to consumption, the company still finds it hard to raise the value of agricultural products. Meanwhile, vegetable fields of Lam Dong and other localities are being applied high technology, leading to the fierce competition of each vegetable product on the domestic market.”

To deal with this, based on agricultural production technology training projects in Malaysia, Japan, Australia and Canada and based on local situations, the company proactively built solutions to clear “bottlenecks” to improve the competitiveness of agricultural products. Typical solutions included applying high technology in production, signing pre-production contracts and cooperating in production to improve output and diversify production.

At present, Phong Thuy has 120 ha of vegetable applied with high-tech production techniques: covering plastic film on soil to prevent erosion and kill weeds; installing sprinkler and drip irrigation systems to save water, labor and fertilizer; using net houses and greenhouses to control humidity, prevent insects and restrict pesticide in use.

The company has a farm area of 55 ha which yields 5,000 tons of vegetables and fruits a year and a cooperation area of 70 ha which produces 6,000 tons a year. At present, Phong Thuy is supplying over 12,000 tons of VietGAP-standard vegetables, tubers and fruits. With more than 30 types of vegetables such as tomatoes, sweet peppers, hot peppers, beans, chayote, squash and cucumber, over 80% of vegetables are sold to supermarkets, restaurants and processors in Ho Chi Minh City and Southeast provinces such as Co.op Mart and Lotte Mart; 10-15% of the output are exported and the rest is sold in traditional markets. The company’s seed source is guaranteed with pure seeds produced by the company, domestic vegetable varieties, hybrid vegetable varieties or imported high-class vegetables.

“The most important achievement that Phong Thuy has made is credibility and brand name affirmed in organic vegetable production not only in Lam Dong but also throughout the country. Specially, the effect of the production cooperation chain, from production to consumption, helps control quality and bring organic agricultural products to consumers. At the same time, with the value of agricultural products stabilized and their rights guaranteed, farmers are assured of following the sustainable production direction,” he said.

The year 2020 marks a special milestone in the company’s development - the 30th founding anniversary - and also witnesses a new step into a new development stage of Phong Thuy Agricultural Product Trade Manufacturing Company. Despite huge difficulties and challenges in the way, with positive results achieved, the company is confident about its development progress and its valuable contributions and benefits for farmers, customers and partners. The company will continue to accompany Lam Dong province to develop a strong and sustainable high-tech agriculture.

Source: Vietnam Business Forum