Although the area is small compared to Ben Tre province, the strong connection between Tra Vinh and Ben Tre and many importing countries shows that the province’s ability to diversify coconut products is growing and rich in products. coconut products.
Coconut is a highly economic crop, thanks to its regular harvest during the year, creating jobs for people thanks to agricultural activities, processing products from copra, coir, coconut shells… in the picture below. concentration or dispersion in the population. Especially when there are adverse changes in weather and climate, coconut trees are still well adapted, in line with the requirements of sustainable development.
Lesson 1: Developing the coconut material area associated with the link production and consumption
Link to solve the output of coconut industry
Coconut is a traditional crop and has many secondary incomes for farmers, not only depending on traditional commodities such as coconut oil, desiccated coconut, the coir processing industry has taken advantage of most of the coconut shells to produce other products. diversified products and exported coco peat in large volume.
According to Mr. Ho Quang Khai, Deputy General Director of Tra Bac Joint Stock Company, 30 years ago, when the coconut processing industry was not developed, there were not many diverse products from coconuts, the value of coconut trees was not high. Since 1992, the province’s coconut processing industry has only had one relatively modern German-technological oil pressing factory, a few manual oil presses, and only coconut fiber. In 1995, Tra Bac Joint Venture Company was born to produce activated carbon from coconut shell charcoal, from which coconut processing industry developed strongly with products such as activated carbon, BBQ charcoal, frozen coconut milk, desiccated coconut, coir mats, baled coir, coco humus. Every year, the Company has associated and used 180 million coconut shells and copra, 24 million coconut shells for production.
From 2014 to now, SME and AMD projects in Tra Vinh have supported Tra Bac Joint Stock Company, Duong Phat Trading Production One Member Co., Ltd., Ut Mung Co., Ltd and coconut processing facilities in the province. funding for implementation of production applications, investment in factories, machinery and equipment, trade promotion… Recently, the province issued an action plan to upgrade the coconut value chain in the period of 2022 – 2025 and proposed 13 solutions with 37 diverse activities of the coconut value chain, from improving coconut varieties, farming techniques, harvesting, transportation to production technology, product quality, environmental protection, and safety. labor, business management capacity, market access, trade promotion, etc. These activities will certainly bring the province’s coconut processing industry to more and more development, contributing to increasing the value of coconut trees in the future.
Although the province’s processed products have exploited almost thoroughly the main product groups such as coir products, coconut shells, copra and coconut water; More recently, coconut nectar. In particular, coir processing products have high export value in product groups. However, refined products are limited or in small quantities or unprocessed such as coconut milk, virgin coconut oil, soft drinks, coconut jelly, etc. crude coconut products still account for a large proportion.
Farmer To Van Tam, Soc Vinh hamlet, Phuong Thanh commune, Cang Long district is one of the farmers who both produce and associate with businesses in Ben Tre province to supply raw materials for local raw coconut products.
Mr. Tam said: coconut is a crop that brings sustainable economic efficiency, although the price of coconut this year fluctuates non-stop, but thanks to transportation to your province for sale, the profit is better than those selling coconut in Vietnam. garden. Initially, he planted 0.6ha of coconuts on rice land, when coconuts gave fruit, the price fluctuated, so he decided to buy coconuts from people in the commune and transport them to Ben Tre province to both increase income and solve problems. out for gardeners.
Thanks to the stable output, in the following years he bought more land to plant 0.7ha more coconut. With 1.3ha of coconuts, including 0.5ha of coconuts currently bearing fruit, income from 02-03 million VND/month, the remaining area is newly planted. In addition, he buys 6,000-7,000 more coconuts/trip and transports to sell from 06-08 trips/month to businesses in Ben Tre province, with an average profit of 25-30 million VND/month.
Developing the coconut industry associated with entrepreneurship among young people and women
Coconut is a very important crop for the province’s economy, creating a large export turnover, creating jobs and livelihoods for rural and urban areas, contributing to improving nutrition, and solving raw materials for the industry. processing industry, building materials.
According to Mr. Tran Hoang Tuyen, Deputy Director of the Center for Business Research and Support (Ho Chi Minh City), currently many young businesses and entrepreneurs start their businesses from agriculture, including many products from coconut. In Tra Vinh, the coconut nectar product of Mrs. Thach Thi Chal Thi, a resident of Tieu Can district and the coconut oil product of Mrs. Lam Mong Thuy, Ward 6, Tra Vinh city is known as a model of “self-reliance, innovation and creativity”.
In the value chain, coconut shells, coir of Tra Bac Joint Stock Company, coir as well as handicrafts of Ut Mung Company Limited have created high economic profits. Recently, Tan Thanh organic coconut material area and conversion efforts in communes: Tap Ngai, Ngai Hung, Tan Hung, Tieu Can and Dai Phuoc districts, Cang Long district… in the direction of linking production and consumption Organic coconut for export businesses to rest assured to “break the battle” to position in the coconut value chain, really brings many optimistic signals.
While Ut Mung One Member Limited Liability Company “removed the bottleneck” of the design, Tra Vinh Farm Co., Ltd (branded Sokfarm) found a startup model from coconut nectar. After 1 year of research (starting from June 2018), Chal Thi and Dinh Ngai established Sokfarm in Tieu Can district. Sokfarm was born with the mission to resume the “broken” period of the ancient nectar collection in Tra Vinh and commercialize coconut nectar products and is now OCOP certified.
In particular, the foundation of the model is the imprint of Permaculture (permanent permanence or eternal agriculture), so very few people know about it. Mr. Pham Dinh Ngai has invested over VND 2 billion in exploiting coconut nectar and continues to research for Sokfarm to apply circular economy.
Mr. Pham Dinh Ngai, Deputy Director of Tra Vinh Farm Co., Ltd said that coconut nectarine can process 10 products such as: coconut nectar, concentrated coconut nectar, coconut flower sugar, coconut flower vinegar, coconut nectar. fermented, coconut nectarine soy sauce, coconut nectarine color water, coconut nectarine cosmetics, coconut nectarine wine, coconut nectar high alcohol… however, because the product is still new on the market, there are still many difficulties And challenge.
In order to improve the value of coconut trees and create momentum in the market, coconut nectar products have completed 3-star HACCP, ISO2000, FDA, 5S, OCOP certifications in 2019; At the same time, investing in expanding 04ha of raw material areas to collect coconut nectar and cooperating in purchasing raw honey from 04 households in Tieu Can district, creating jobs for more than 20 workers. Products are currently available in 20 provinces and cities through more than 40 agents. On average, the company sells 3,000 finished products to the market every month and has a revenue of more than 200 million VND/month.
In the coming time, the Company will invest more in communication and market to promote domestic sales through many market channels and access international sales channels for export; expand the raw material area to increase input output, solve output for farmers and create stable jobs for local workers.
From coconut products, after more than 5 years of research, Ms. Lam Mong Thuy, owner of Phuong Huynh clean coconut oil facility (KoKoFi) has launched product lines of virgin coconut oil, coconut oil for skin care, and lipstick. Coconut oil… which is produced from enzyme technology combined with natural fermentation has been favored by domestic and foreign markets.
Ms. Thuy said: Compared with before being recognized as OCOP products, the facility has invested in building a coconut oil factory with more than 200m2, including 10 rooms with double closed one-way lines and a treatment system. standard wastewater. KoKoFi has been certified for HACCP, food safety, and cosmetic production eligibility.
In addition to coconut oil products, KoKoFi invests in designing convenient labels and packaging for consumers. The source of raw materials used for production is from Tieu Can, Chau Thanh, Cang Long, Cau Ke districts, with an average of 2.5 – 03 tons of coconut oil/month, the output is about 15,000 products of all kinds/year. Currently, the establishment distributes and consumes products through stores in provinces and cities in the country and a part of products is purchased directly by consumers, the establishment’s website.
Since being recognized as an OCOP product in 2019, distribution activities and product distribution channels have expanded. However, the competitiveness of the product is still limited because there are many big brands developing this category.
To attract consumers, KoKoFi invests in images, redesigns the website, it is important to improve market capacity in the direction of finding new customers, expanding production scale, investing in more machines, and researching new products. new products, linking raw material areas, implementing environmental protection plans, recycling coconut by-products in production…
Article, photos: MẪN QUÂN
